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Mr.  G  Mrs.  M.J.  Stegmaier 
703  Bolton  Walk,  Apt.  104 
Goleta,  California  93017 


EMERY  A.   STORKS. 


POLITICAL  ORATORY 


EMERY  A.  STORRS. 


FROM  LINCOLN  TO  GARFIELD, 


BY 

ISAAC  K.  ADAMS. 


"IN  OKA  TORY  THE  ESSENTIAL  SECRET  IS  A  GIFT  OF  GOD? 


CHICAGO,  NEW  YORK,  SAN  FRANCISCO: 

BELFORD,     CLARKE    &    CO 

1888. 


COPYRIGHT 
ISAAC  E.  ADAMS. 

1888. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


I. 
POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

PAGl. 

RARITY  OF  EMINENT  EXAMPLES  OF  POLITICAL  ORATORS  ou  ORA- 
TORY —  FRAMEWORK  OF  MR.  STORRS'  LIFE— UNIQUE  CAREER  — 
COMPARISON  OF  FAME  OF  CHOATE  AND  SUMNER — PERSONAL 
APPEARANCE  AND  CHARACTERISTICS  — REMARKABLE  ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS OF  WONDERFUL  MEMORY  AND  EXTEMPORE  POWERS— 
NATURE  OF  WORK 6 

II. 
ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  WIT  AND  WISDOM. 

EVIDENCE  OF  AN  ORATOR'S  POWER  —  DEMOCRATIC  CHARACTERIZA- 
TIONS —  THE  MODERNIZED  PRODIGAL  SON  —  FUN  WITH  SEYMOUR— 
TILDEN  WRITES  A.LETTER  — BRAVES  WHO  REMAINED  AT  HOME- 
CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER— VARIOUS  TYPES  OF  ELO- 
QUENCE   U 

III. 
EARLY  POLITICAL  SPEECHES. 

THE  KANSAS  TROUBLES  —  '58  —  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  DEMOCRATIC  MIS- 
RULE FORETOLD  —  FOURTH  OF  JULY,  1854  —  OUR  NATION'S 
FUTURE— LINCOLN'S  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION  —  JOHNSON'S 
SOUTHERN  POLJCT 37 

IV. 

THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1868. 

ELAINE'S  STATE  THE  SCENE  OF  MR.  STORRS'  EARLIEST  AND  LATEST 
TRIUMPHS  AS  A  POLITICAL  ORATOR— ARRAIGNMENT  OF  THE 
DEMOCRATIC  PARTY  —  DEFENSE  OF  THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  AMEND- 
MENTS   6t 

V. 

THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1872. 

THE  DISCONTENTED  BAND— A  SPRINGFIELD,  ILL.,  MASS-MEET- 
ING— GREELEY  SAYS  "THE  WAY  TO  RESUME  is  TO  RESUME"  — 
WHO  WAS  THE  FATHER  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY?— A 
FAMOUS  ILLUSTRATION  —  GRANT'S  IMMORTALITY—  ILLIBERAL 
"  LIBERALS  "—THE  WOLF  PARTY  —SOME  BIBLICAL  ILLUSTRATIONS,  100 


'7  ONTENTS—  Continued. 

I 

VI. 

THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1876. 

PAGB. 

"LIBERAL  "  REPUBLICANISM— CIVTEL  SERVICE  REFORM  —  REVISION  OF 
THE  TARIFF— RESUMPTION  OF  SPECIE  PAYMENT  —  GENERAL 
GRANT'S  RECORD  CONTRASTED  WITH  THAT  OF  HORACE  GHEE- 
LEY—SCRIPTURAL  ILLUSTRATIONS , 160 

VII. 
THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1880. 

AN  ORATORICAL  VICTORY  ON  THE  PACIFIC  SLOPE— CHARACTER  OF 
GENERAL  GRANT  — WORK  OF  AN  ORATOR— RECORD  OF  A  GREAT 
PARTY  — ADDRESSES  AT  BURLINGTON,  CLEVELAND  AND  OTHER 
CITIES  —  ELOQUENCE  AND  LOGIC 199 

VIII. 
THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1884. 

REMARKABLE  SCENE  IN  THE  NATIONAL  CONVENTION  —  CONQUESTS 
OF  ORATORY  IN  VARIOUS  CITIES  — GREAT  SPEECH  AT  BOSTON  — 
COMPARISON  OF  THE  CONTENDING  PARTIES— DOWNFALL  OF  THE 
REPUBLICAN  PARTY  AT  THE  POLLS 230 

IX. 

THE  TARIFF  ISSUE. 

AN  EVER- EXISTING  QUESTION— PARALLEL  BETWEEN  THE  ECONOMIC 
POSITION  IN  1870  AND  1888— ADDRESS  BY  MR.  STOURS  AT  SPRING- 
FIELD— REASONS  FOR  CHANGE  IN  UTTERANCES  —  THE  OTHER  SIDE 
OFTHE  FENCE..  263 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER. 


POLITICAL  OKATOKY. 


RAEITY  OF  EMINENT  EXAMPLES  OF  POLITICAL  ORATORS 
OR  ORATORY — FRAMEWORK  OF  MR.  STORRS'  LIFE — 
UNIQUE  CAREER — COMPARISON  OF  FAME  OF  CHOATE 
AND  SUMNER — PERSONAL  APPEARANCE  AND  CHARAC- 
TERISTICS— REMARKABLE  ILLUSTRATIONS  OFWONDERFUL 
MEMORY  AND  EXTEMPORE  POWERS — NATURE  OF  WORK. 

FEW  examples  of  political  oratory  have  been  em- 
•  balmed  in  literature.  Men,  too,  remembered  for 
oratorical  power  are  easily  reckoned,  and  tower  con- 
spicuously along  the  shores  of  time.  There  was  once  a' 
Demosthenes,  once  a  Cicero,  once  a  Burke.  The  time  will 
come  when,  looking  back  upon  the  centuries  of  American 
history,  it  will  be  said  there  was,  also,  once  a  Webster 
and  once  a  Lincoln.  Around  each  of  these  political  suns 
may  swing,  here  and  there  in  unshrouding  space,  a  glow- 
ing light;  but  the  lesser  luminaries  pale  and  eventually 
become  lost  to  the  mind's  sight  with  the  receding 
years.  Moreover,  the  exceptional  oratorical  efforts  — 
politically — of  even  these  preeminent  ones  in  the  world's 
annals,  are  few  in  number,  and  come  to  active  mankind 
but  as  memories  of  droning  school  elocution.  Attempt 
to  recollect  the  orators  of  the  past,  and  their  efforts,  and 
it  must  be  said  with  Cicero  that  the  orator  is  a  rarer 
product  of  nature  than  the  poet.  Demosthenes  has 
been  named  —  he  was  partly  the  born  and  partly  the 

(5) 


6  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

made  orator,  and  his  speeches  are  as  few  as  the  digits 
upon  the  hand ;  Burke,  whose  orations  are  the  greatest 
in  the  English  language,  himself  esteemed  highly  but 
two  of  his  speeches,  and  it  is  true,  that,  while  he  began 
by  surprising  Parliament  as  a  prodigy,  he  ended  by 
emptying  the  house.  Mirabeau,  ranking  in  the  annals 
of  his  country  as  the  most  famous,  fiery  and  effective  of 
French  orators,  is  scarcely  known.  Lord  Chesterfield, 
Lord  Chatham,  the  Foxes  —  who  can  recall  more  than 
the  fleeting  phrase  from  their  many  utterances  ?  Almost 
of  yesterday  were  Tyng,  Bethune,  Chapin,  McClintock, 
Cheever,  Starr  King,  Cuyler,  Milburn,  Bellows,  Thomp- 
son—  some  of  them  as  eloquent  as  any  men  in  our  his- 
tory —  but  they  are  already  engulphed  in  almost  total 
oblivion.  Wendell  Phillips,  silvery  as  the  tinkle  of  an 
•Alpine  bell;  Kossuth,  the  soul  of  mingled  fun  and 
pathos ;  Gough,  who  for  a  score  of  years  held,  upon  his 
reels  and  staggers  and  mimicry,  weeping  and  laughing 
crowds — are  sure  to  speedily  be  but  traditions  —  so  with 
Beecher,  so  with  Spurgeon.  To  change  the  use  of  an 
old  figure,  it  matters  not  whether  the  eloquence  of 
the  orator,  during  his  day,  is  like  a  summer  shower, 
lightning  striking,  passing  on ;  or  whether  like  a  storm 
at  sea,  rising  lowly,  with  hazy  sun,  with  threatening 
clouds,  with  awesome  thunder — it  prevails  overall  —  in 
every  case,  Time  obscures  its  path.  Oratory  of  all 
kinds  is,  has  been,  and  will  be  scarce.  Therefore,  at 
any  time,  and  especially  upon  the  eve  of  a  national 
campaign,  no  excuse  can  be  needed  for  presenting  to 
the  thinking,  reading  and  speaking  public  some  selec- 
tions from  one  who  deservedly  ranked  as  one  of  the 
greatest  political  orators  of  his  day  —  a  day  embracing 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  7 

a  period  of  remarkable  internecine  war  and  subsequent 
equally  remarkable  prosperity ;  and  nowhere  is  extant 
a  volume  of  equal  size  containing  so  splendid  examples 
of  perfect  argument,  bristling  with  satire,and  embellished 

by  all  the  magnificence  of  genuine  eloquence. 

* 
#       * 

The  framework  of  the  life  of  Emery  A.  Storrs  was 
simple : 

Born  August  12,  1835,  he  lived  fifty  years,  dying 
September  12, 1885.  Thirty  years  —  two  at  Buffalo,  N. 
Y.,  and  twenty- eight  at  Chicago — as  a  lawyer  he  occu- 
pied the  front  rank  at  the  American  bar.  He  never 
held  public  office.  He  never  received  any  remunera- 
tion for  his  political  achievements.  He  was  content 
to  be  a  great  orator. 

With  no  pedestal  of  high  office,  with  no  monument 
of  some  permanent  creation  in  literature,  Mr.  Storrs 
may  be  ephemeral  in  American  fame.  The  hand  of 
forgetting  Fate  may  relentlessly  thrust  him  altogether 
from  even  the  vestibule  of  that  temple  within  which 
stand  eternally  the  Lincoln  and  the  Grant  of  the  great 
rebellion.  If  Choate  and  Sumner  are  surely  sinking 
into  oblivion,  little  more  can  be  hoped  for  one  who,  it 
has  been  said,  possessed  the  endowments  of  both  —  th.e 
tirelessness  in  preparation,  the  nervous,  magnetic  energy 
in  execution,  and  the  fidelity  in  trying  emergencies  of 
the  one,  and  the  convincing  logic,  the  impressiveness  of 
style,  and  the  persuasive  richness  of  the  other.  But,  he 
was  an  ornament  to  his  day  and  generation.  The  pub- 
lic speaker  can  well  afford  to  study  Emery  A.  Storrs' 
orations  as  models  in  oratory. 

In  appearance,  he  was  not  unusual.     Physically,  he 


8  POLITICAL  OftATOfcY. 

was  small,  not  weighing  over  one  hundred  and 
twenty  avoirdupois;  owing  to  inherited  weakness, 
he  was  wont  to  stoop  slightly,  except  when  en- 
gaged in  public  speaking,  and  then  he  always  stood 
erect,  firm  and  straight  as  an  Indian.  His  voice 
was  rich,  deep,  full  as  an  organ  note  —  extraordi- 
nary in  its  sweetness,  and  rounded  intoning.  There 
was  something  singularly  fascinating  in  his  style  and 
manner  of  speaking.  His  custom  was  to  begin  every 
argument  or  any  oratorical  effort  in  slow,  measured 
tones,  sinking  at  times  almost  into  a  whisper,  but  always 
clear  and  clean-cut,  so  that  unto  the  remotest  listener 
every  inflection  would  come  distinct  as  though  thun- 
dered. Gradually  his  voice  would  rise  and  strengthen, 
until  the  words  poured  forth  a  fiery  flood  of  irresistible 
argument,  gleaming  with  sharp  invective  and  brillian 
wit.  His  dialect  was  simple,  pure,  and  direct.  He 
employed  judiciously  the  graces  of  imagination.  He 
was  totally  devoid  of  theatricalism  in  elocution,  gesture, 
and  personal  bearing,  but  would  sometimes  resort  to  the 
most  intense  dramatic  effects,  while  his  wondrous  wit, 
rarely,  if  ever,  surpassed  on  the  rostra  or  in  the 
forum,  could  break,  at  his  will,  into  a  terribly  biting 
whirlwind  of  raillery  and  jest,  before  which  show  men 
and  tinsel  appearances  were  swept  into  a  sea  of  ridicu- 
lousness. Yet,  this  splendid  wit  of  Mr.  Storrs — this 
merry  and  ridiculing  laugh,  so  to  speak,  of  his  intellect 
— was  not  his  real  temper.  He  prided  himself  more 
upon  the  thoroughness  with  which  he  mastered  facts 
and  upon  the  surpassing  skill  with  which  he  added  them 
to  great  truths  and  broad  principles. 

His  mind   was    stored    to  overflowing  with  the 


POLITICAL  OtlATORY.  $ 

treasures  of  literature,  ever  ready  to  be  uttered.  No 
one  of  that  vast  audience  which  had  gathered  upon  the 
shores  of  Lake  Michigan  that  autumn  day  to  listen  to 
Mr.  Storrs  speak,  can  ever  forget  the  marvelous  appro- 
priateness with  which,  he  inter weaved  into  the  panegyric 
he  suddenly  pronounced  upon  the  dead  Garfield  —  the 
news  of  whose  death  came  with  the  moment  to  the  ora- 
tor—  the  veriest  gems  of  literature.  Take  but  one  short 
paragraph  of  that  tender,  beautiful  eulogy,  pronounced 
impromptu,  but  which  in  the  language  of  a  contempor- 
ary "moved  the  multitude  to  tears  and  left  an  impres- 
sion ineffaceable  during  life." 

"  Our  departed  Garfield  wisely  said  that  God  reigns; 
and  in  the  presence  of  that  great  national  calamity  and 
bereavement,  the  martyrdom  of  Lincoln,  he  declared  '  God 
reigns,  and  the  government  at  Washington  still  lives/  The 
life  of  man  is  but  a  few  short  years.  This  nation  is  im- 
mortal. Its  life  is  indestructible.  No  bullet  was  ever  cast 
or  ever  will  be  that  can  reach  its  heart.  No  assassin  can 
ever  shatter  it,  and  it  is  for  us  to  take  up  the  thread  of  this 
noble  life,  so  untimely  and  tragically  closed,  and  carry  on 
our  shoulders,  inspired  by  his  example,  the  country  which 
he  had  done  so  much  to  honor  and  to  save,  forward  on 
the  great  and  lofty  mission  which  he  had  again  and  again 
pointed  out  for  it.  He  would  have  it  march  in  the  path- 
way of  noble  resolve  and  spotless  honor,  and  so  will  we. 
He  would  have  its  pathway  marked  by  the  skeleton  of  no 
broken  engagements  or  violated  promises.  Nor  will  we. 
He  would  leave  behind  it  no  desolated  homes,  but  would 
have  in  its  career  smiling  villages,  prospering  towns,  fields 
of  waving  grain,  golden  harvest,  contented  and  prospering 
homes,  and  the  hum  of  busy  cities  greeting  it  everywhere. 
So  will  we.  On  its  banners  he  would  have  no  stain,  no 


10  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

spot  or  blemish,  or  any  such  thing.  Nor  will  we.  And 
the  most  touching  tributes  that  we  can  pay  to  the  memory 
of  our  dead  President  and  friend  will  not  be  the  flowers  we 
may  cast  upon  his  grave,  but  they  will  be  a  steady  striving 
toward  the  example  of  his  pure  and  spotless  life.  For 
these,  after  all,  are  the  patriotic  harmonies  which  the 
solemn  dirges  that  fill  the  air  over  all  the  continent  carry 
with  them. 

"  It  is  to  such  music,  sad,  solemn,  but  lofty  as  this, 
that  the  funeral  processions  throughout  the  continent,  and 
all  but  a  part  of  that  sad  procession  which  to-day  follows 
the  remains  of  our  dead  President  to  their  last  resting 
place,  are  marching. 

"Our  sweetest  songs  are  those  that  tell  of  saddest  thought. 

"  And  there  are  no  harmonies  so  grand  as  those  which 
come  from  high  hearts,  beating  in  unison  a  lofty  and 
patriotic  purpose.  Thus  honoring  and  thus  loving  him, 
we  commit  our  great  Chief  Magistrate  to  his  final  resting- 
place — 

"  His  body  to  that  blessed  country's  earth, 
And  his  pure  soul  unto  his  Captain,  Christ, 
Under  whose  colors  he  had  fought  so  long. 

"  The  lesson  of  his  life  was: 

"  Be  just  and  fear  not, 

Let  all  the  ends  thou  aim'st  at  be  thy  country's, 
Thy  God's,  and  truth's, 
Then,  if  thou  fallest,  thou  fallest  a  blessed  martyr 

"Sadly,  with  our  eyes  blinded  with  bitter  tears,  we 
gather  around  that  open  grave.  The  flowers  which  we  heap 
about  it  are  not  those  of  f orgetfulness.  As  the  green 
grasses  shall  grow  above  it  at  the  first  quick  flush  of  the 
opening  spring,  as  the  flowers  shall  bloom  over  it  through 
all  the  long  summer  days,  so  from  that  poor  shattered  and 


POLITICAL  OBATOfcY.  11 

Coffined  body  shall  the  noble  spirit  rise,  living,  immortal, 
a  tender  memory  and  a  holy  inspiration." 

Emery  A.  Storrs  had,  moreover,  a  power  of  extem- 
pore oratory  in  no  wise  dependent  upon  his  remarkable 
retentiveness  of  memory.  While  in  St.  Louis,  as  leading 
counsel  for  the  defense  in  the  famous  Babcock  trial,  he 
exhibited  his  readiness  in  marshalling  thoughts  and  his 
amazing  command  of  language  in  a  wonderful  instance. 
His  great  cause  had  been  won ;  his  client  had  been  honor- 
ably acquitted ;  and  there  gathered  around  Mr.  Storrs  at 
the  Lindell  Hotel  a  congratulating  circle,  including  many 
eminent  members  of  the  St.  Louis  bar.  Some  of  these 
were  disposed  to  celebrate  the  occasion  by  conviviality, 
but  Mr.  Storrs  could  not  be  induced  to  join  in  their 
potations,  though  he  sat  smiling  by,  drinking  lemonade. 
One  of  his  legal  brethren  suggested  that  he  surely  never 
had  gone  through  the  fatigues  of  such  a  trial  without 
some  stronger  stimulus  than  lemonade ;  he  doubted  its 
power  of  inspiration,  and  challenged  Mr.  Storrs  to  make 
an  off-hand  temperance  speech.  The  challenge  was 
promptly  accepted,  and  a  short-hand  reporter  who  was 
present  took  notes  of  what  he  said,  and  published  the 
speech  from  his  notes  after  Mr.  Storrs'  death.  Although 
modeled  on  John  B.  Gough's  well-known  apostrophe  to 
water  —  which,  in  its  turn,  was  said  to  have  been  origi- 
nal with  Lorenzo  Dow  —  the  speech  which  follows  is 
so  thoroughly  characteristic  in  ideas  and  method  of 
expression  as  to  be  altogether  and  most  brilliantly  Mr. 
Storrs'  own  brain-child: 

"How  do  you  expect  to  improve  upon  the  beverage 
furnished  by  nature  ?  Here  it  is —  Adam's  ale  —  about  the 
only  gift  that  has  descended  undefiled  from  the  garden  of 


12  POLITICAL 

Eden!    Nature's  common  carrier  —  not  created  in  the  rot- 
tenness of  fermentation,  not  distilled  over  guilty  fires! 
Virtues  and  not  vices  are  its  companions.     Does  it  cause 
drunkenness,  disease,  death,  cruelty  to  women  and  chil- 
dren?   Will  it  place  rags  on  the  person,  mortgages  on  the 
stock,  farm,  and  furniture?    Will  it  consume  wages  and 
income  in  advance  and  ruin  men  in  business?    No!     But 
it  floats  in  white  gossamer  clouds  far  up  in  the  quiet  sum- 
mer sky,  and  hovers  in  dreamy  mist  over  the  merry  faces 
of  all  our  sparkling  lakes.     It  veils  the  woods  and  hills  of 
earth's  landscapes  in  a  purple  haze,  where  filmy  lights  and 
shadows  drift  hour  after  hour.     It  piles  itself  in  tumbled 
masses  of  cloud-domes  and  thunderheads,  draws  the  electric 
flash  from  its  mysterious  hiding-places,  and  seams  and 
shocks  the  wide  air  with  vivid  lines  of  fire.     It  is  carried 
by  kind  winds,  and   falls  in   rustling  curtains  of  liquid 
drapery  over  all  the  thirsty  woo'ds  and  fields,  and  fixes  in 
God's  mystic  eastern  heavens  His  beautiful  bow  of  promise, 
glorified  with  a  radiance  that  seems  reflected  out  of  heaven 
itself.     It  gleams  in  the  frost  crystals  of  the  mountain  tops 
and  the  dews  of  the  valleys.     It  silently  creeps  up  to  each 
leaf  in  the  myriad  forests  of  the  world  and  tints  each  fruit 
and  flower.     It  is  here  in  the  grass-blades  of  the  meadows, 
and  there  where  the  corn  waves  its  tassels  and  the  wheat  is 
billowing!    It  gems  the  depths  of  the  desert  with  the  glad, 
green  oasis,  winds  itself  in  oceans  round  the  whole  earth, 
and  roars  its  hoarse,  eternal  anthems  on  a  hundred  thou- 
sand miles  of  coast!    It  claps  its  hands  in  the  flashing  wave- 
crests  of  the  sea,  laughs  in  the  little  rapids  of  the  brooks, 
kisses  the  dripping,  moss-covered,  old  oaken  well-buckets 
in  a  countless  host  of  happy  homes!     See  these  pieces  of 
cracked  ice,  full  of  prismatic  colors,  clear  as  diamonds! 
Listen  to  their  fairy  tinkle  against  the  brimming  glass, 
that  sweetest  music  in  all  the  world  to  one  half-fainting 


POLITICAL  ORATOKY.  13 

with  thirst!  And  so,  in  the  language  of  that  grand  old 
man,  Gough,  I  ask  you,  Brothers  all,  would  you  exchange 
that  sparkling  glass  of  water  for  alcohol,  the  drink  of  the 
very  Devil  himself  ?  " 

TV  TV 

This  little  Avork,  although  especially  planned  for  a 
presentation  of  the  fullness  of  Mr.  Storrs'  rich  and  peer- 
less political  argument  and  for  a  showing  of  the  mas- 
si  veness  and  the  incisiveness  of  his  logic,  may  not  be 
unhappily  introduced  further  by  one  chapter  devoted  to 
illustrations  of  some  of  his  witty  and  eloquent  charac- 
terizations of  persons  and  parties,  as  gathered  from  sc.ne 
of  his  forensic  victories.  The  work,  hoAvever,  as  its  title 
implies,  treats,  through  Mr.  Storrs'  great  speeches,  of  the 
Kansas  troubles  of  1858;  it  covers  the  agitating  ques- 
tions of  the  campaigns  of  1860, 1868, 1872,1876, 1880  and 
1884:.  There  is,  also,  an  exposition  of  Mr.  Storrs'  free- 
trade  sentiments  in  1870,  when  he  discussed  the  high 
tariff  as  a  Avar  measure  and  claimed  that  the  farmers  of 
the  West  needed  to  be  protected  against  protection;  — 
together  with  an  exposition  of  how,  in  1882,  he  became 
an  ardent  protectionist.  In  these  later  chapters,  more 
particularly,  the  reader  is  invited  to  selections  from 
most  impressive  arguments,  brightened  by  felicitous  wit 
and  all  the  graces  of  magnificent  oratory.  It  is  the 
work  of  Mr.  Storrs.  The  diction,  the  beauties  of  expres- 
sion, above  all  the  keen-edged  logic,  are  suggested  as 
worthy  the  study  of  all  thinkers. 


n. 

ILLUSTKATIONS  OF  WIT  AND  WISDOM. 

EVIDENCE  OF  AN  ORATOR'S  POWER — DEMOCRATIC  CHARAC- 
TERIZATIONS— THE  MODERNIZED  PRODIGAL  SON- — FUN 
WITH  SEYMOUR — TILDEN  WRITES  A  LETTER — BRAVES 
WHO  EEMAINED  AT  HOME — CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES 
SUMNER — VARIOUS  TYPES  OF  ELOQUENCE. 

IT  will  some  time  be  regarded  as  a  remarkable  fact 
that  a  political  orator  of  the  days  of  the  Kebellion, 
and  immediately  afterwards,  should  indulge  in  such 
ardent  displays  of  partisanship  and  personality,  and  yet 
hold  —  as  did  always  Mr.  Storrs  —  the  unanimous  and 
enthusiastic  sympathy  of  his  vast  audiences.  All  classes, 
the  high  and  the  low,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  intel- 
lectual and  the  dullard,  Democrat  and  Kepublican,  helped 
fill  to  overflowing  the  auditorium  or  public  square  when- 
ever it  was  announced  that  Emery  A.  Storrs  was  to  be 
the  orator  of  the  occasion.  There  seemed  to  be  a  sort 
of  witchery  about  his  name,  or  a  spell  of  magic  about 
his  utterances.  The  laugh  at  his  lanced  personal  dia- 
tribes, the  cheer  at  his  party  eulogiums,  and  the  storm 
of  vehement  applause  at  his  floods  of  brilliant  eloquence, 
were  ever  as  from  one  man.  To  this  fact,  the  thousands 
living  can  bear  witness — for  Mr.  Storrs  was  of  yester- 
day. Yet  no  man,  perhaps,  ever  swayed  an  audience 
who  was  so  radical,  so  extreme  in  all  his  portraitures  of 
men  and  measures.  It  is  true,  doubtless,  that  one  chief 
reason  for  what  will  in  the  days  to  come  be  considered 

14 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  15 

somewhat  in  the  light  of  an  anomaly,  is  due  to  the 
times  in  which  Mr.  Storrs  lived  and  participated ;  for 
he  began  his  career  in  the  season  of  war,  and  he  passed 
away  not  long  after  the  cannon  had  ceased  its  wonder- 
ful music.  The  chiefest  reason,  though,  in  the  case  of 
Mr.  Storrs,  rested  in  the  fact  that  he  was  "  the  orator 
born."  The  sensorium  of  mortals  seems  to  yield  to  the 
natural  genius  of  oratory.  It  is,  as  of  old,  a  music 
which  thrills.  The  vibration  of  thought,  of  voice,  of 
action  —  all  conquered,  and  foe  and  friend  roared  or 
maintained  silence  at  his  wish.  The  doubter  is  referred 
to  those  living  who  have  heard  Mr.  Storrs  speak,  or, 
indeed,  to  the  columns  of  the  contemporary  press,  stud- 
ded with  parenthetic  [cheers],  [applause]. 

He  did,  though,  say  many  severe  things  of  his  oppo- 
nents. His  comparison  of  the  record  of  the  Democratic 
party  will  not  soon  be  forgotten.  "  The  Democratic 
party  is  like  a  mule :  it  has  neither  pride  of  ancestry 
nor  hope  of  posterity."  "  There  are  millions,"  he  said, 
"  better  than  the  party,  and  none  worse."  "  The  Demo- 
cratic party  cannot  be  compared  to  sin,  but  only  because 
it  is  sin  itself."  It  will  be  remembered,  too,  what  he  said 
of  Democratic  assurances : 

"  We  are  satisfied  that  any  policy,  particularly  any 
Eepublican  policy,  based  upon  Democratic  promises,  is  rest- 
ing upon  a  foundation  so  frail  and  insecure  that  it  must  ulti- 
mately perish.  London  is  proverbially  foggy.  The  fog 
there,  at  times,  is  said  to  be  so  dense  that  it  is  actually  pal- 
pable to  the  touch.  An  honest  and  enterprising  British 
carpenter,  shingling  his  house  on  one  foggy  day,  was  sur- 
prised to  find,  when  the  day's  work  was  concluded,  that  he 
had  shingled  out  about  three  feet  on  to  the  fog.  My  good, 


16  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

timorous  Republican  friends,  for  God's  sake  don't  let  us 
shingle  on  to  the  fog.  One  day  of  fair  weather  destroys 
that  unsubstantial  foundation,  and  you  might  as  well 
attempt  to  build  out  on  to  a  fog  as  to  establish  any  policy 
from  which  the  country  is  to  derive  substantial  and  contin- 
uous peace  or  quiet,  upon  any  assurance  of  the  Democratic 
party  as  such/' 

And  none  can  ever  forget  his  comparison  of  the 
Democratic  party  to  the  prodigal  son.  He  said  : 

' '  It  takes  but  a  very  few  days'  contact  with  the  Democ- 
racy to  stain  the  white  and  spotless  garment  of  Republi- 
canism. They  mistake  a  great  Scriptural  story.  Mr. 
Chairman,  the  air  is  full  of  devotion.  I  feel  a  good  deal 
like  talking  Scripture  myself.  They  are  misled  by  the 
story  of  the  prodigal  son.  They  seem  to  think  that  that 
parable  was  told  as  an  invitation  for  young  men  to  go  off 
and  be  prodigals.  It  was  not  told  for  any  such  purpose. 
The  prodigal  made  nothing  whatever  out  of  the  experiment. 
He  took  what  money  belonged  to  him  and  went  away  fool- 
ishly, as  other  young  men  have  done.  He  fell  among  the 
Democrats,  and  was  naturally  cleaned  out.  And  when  his 
money  was  gone,  and  his  clothes  gone,  and  his  credit  gone, 
the  Democrats  of  that  day  had  no  further  use  for  him.  He 
went  into  the  swine  business,  Mr.  Chairman,  as  I  read  it. 
He  went  to  feed  swine,  and  the  swine  were  discouraged ; 
and  then  he  went  feeding  with  swine,  and  they  turned  him 
out,  and  it  was  hard  times  with  the  poor,  young  independ- 
ent prodigal.  And  without  clothes  enough  on  him  to  wad 
a  gun,  he  started  for  home.  The  point  comes  right  here  : 
How  much  did  the  prodigal  make  out  of  that  enterprise  ? 
The  dear  old  father  looking  down  that  dusty  turnpike 
expecting  the  boy  back  ultimately,  and  seeing  him  coming, 
went  out  and  threw  himself  around  his  neck  and  welcomed 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  17 

him.  And  what  did  he  give  him  ?  He  did  not  give  him 
back  any  of  the  farm  ;  he  did  not  give  him  an  office  —  no, 
not  the  smell  of  an  office.  The  prodigal  had  too  much 
good  sense  to  ask  for  one.  All  he  cared  for  was  to  be  taken 
in  as  a  hired  servant.  And  what  that  father  gave  him  was 
a  new  suit  of  clothes  and  a  ring  on  his  finger,  and  a  veal 
dinner.  A  fatted  calf.  That  contribution  has  always 
been  over-estimated.  Everybody  was  engaged  in  raising 
calves.  There  was  no  market  for  calves  —  calves  were 
"long."  And  the  boy  who  stayed  at  home  did  not  quite 
relish  this  uproar,  on  account  of  this  sore-eyed  prodigal, 
and  he  turned  to  his  father  with  some  complaint ;  but  his 
father  said,  "  Don't  complain,  son,  you  are  always  with 
me  ;  all  that  I  have  is  thine."  Not  a  cent  of  money,  not  a 
foot  of  ground,  not  an  office  was  given  to  the  prodigal ; 
but  the  boy  who  staid  at  home  had  it  all.  Now  I  do  hope 
that  my  Independent  friends  won't  wait  — that  they  won't 
tarry.  My  good  friends  down  there  in  New  York,  you 
can  never  occupy  a  mansion  that  is  so  spacious  and  so  splen- 
did. You  will  never  again  be  so  honorably  and  comfort- 
ably housed.  Come  back  to  the  great  mansion,  the  dome 
of  which  glistens  with  stars  and  is  as  broad  as  the  very 
heavens.  Come  back  to  the  old  mansion.  It  is  capable  of 
entertaining  the  fifty  millions  of  good,  earnest,  patriotic 
people  of  this  nation.  Come  back  to  it.  After  all  the 
decayed  timbers  of  human  chattelhood  have  been  removed, 
and  we  have  supplied  their  places  with  the  everlasting 
granite  of  universal  freedom,  come  back  to  it  —  with  its 
glorious  inscriptions  written  and  emblazoned  upon  its  walls, 
no  longer  devastated  by  the  fugitive  slave  law  ;  no  longer 
befouled  and  besmirched  by  the  inscriptions  of  the  Dred 
Scott  case.  Come  back  with  the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth 
Amendments  that  glimmer  like  shining  planets  from  its 
white  and  stainless  walls." 


18  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

More  dignified,  but  more  terrible  was  his  arraign- 
ment of  the  same  party  when  replying  to  an  opponent 
who  had  alluded  to  the  history  of  the  Democratic 

part}7. 

" Its  history,"  said  he,  "is  made  up  of  great,  ghostly 

scars  inflicted  upon  the  nation,  of  cemeteries  filled  with 
noble  men  who  have  fallen  victims  to  its  doctrines.  Its 
history  can  be  traced  on  bloody  battle-fields,  where  citizens 
of  the  same  nationality  have  been  arrayed  against  each 
other  because  of  Democratic  heresies.  Its  history  is  found 
in  desolated  homes  and  speaks  through  mourning  weeds, 
orphan  children  and  widowed  wives,  made  so  through  a 
causeless,  cruel,  wicked  war.  Its  history  is  found  also  in 
the  gigantic  national  debt,  created  to  save  a  nation  which 
its  heresies  came  very  near  destroying.  Every  one-legged 
soldier  furnished  a  bit  of  history  of  Democratic  doctrine; 
the  black  stain  of  repudiation  fastened  upon  the  Southern 
states  remains  there  to-day  as  proof  of  Democratic  doctrine, 
eternally  ineffaceable  —  and  there  is  no  tradition  about  it^ 
for  the  creditors  still  live  and  they  know  they  have  been 
plundered.  The  mellow  light  of  tradition  does  not  rest 
upon  Democratic  political  crimes;  it  is  the  ghastly  light  of 
to-day  which  discloses  their  political  offenses  in  all  their 
hideous  deformities. 

"It  is  difficult  to  restrain  one's  self  so  as  to  talk  com- 
posedly of  this  Democratic  party  when  we  reflect  that  it 
undertook  to  fasten  the  blighting,  blistering  curse  of  Afri- 
can chattelhood  upon  the  great,  verdant  territories  of  the 
"West,  which  the  Eepublican  party  has  made  free  states 
and  saved  to  be  splendid  homes  for  free  men.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  speak  quietly  and  patiently  of  a  party  which,  being 
defeated  in  the  execution  of  such  a  gigantic  crime  against 
the  civilization  of  the  age  and  against  common  humanity, 
hurried  and  forced  a  great  republic  into  a  rebellion  the 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  19 

most  causeless  and  the  most  wicked  that  history  has  re- 
corded. A  party  which  would  thus  imperil  the  success  of 
the  experiment  of  self-government  inaugurated  upon  this 
continent,  imperil  that  great  experiment  to  promote  a 
cause  so  indescribably  wicked  as  that  of  African  slavery,  can 
hardly  look  for  gingerly  treatment  or  language  of  courtesy 
when  its  career  and  history  are  under  discussion.  But  this 
party,  which  for  twenty-five  years  has  been  political  crime 
and  lust  for  power,  organized  with  faults  that  disprove  all 
protestations  of  good  conduct  for  the  future  on  its  lips, 
comes  to  our  people  and  has  the  audacity  —  I  say  audacity: 
it  is  so  when  we  consider  what  its  past  doctrines  and  tradi- 
tions have  been —  to  employ  this  language:  'We  pledge 
ourselves  anew  to  the  constitutional  doctrines  and  tradi- 
tions of  the  Democratic  party,  as  illustrated  by  the  teach- 
ings and  example  of  a  long  line  of  Democratic  statesmen 
and  patriots/  The  line  of  Democratic  statesmen  and 
patriots  here  referred  to  practically  begins  with  Franklin 
Pierce.  It  was  continued  by  James  Buchanan,  and  while 
the  line  was  somewhat  interrupted  thereafter,  Jefferson 
Davis,  Horatio  Seymour,  Wade  Hampton,  Senator  Hen- 
dricks,  Robert  Toombs,  Ben  Butler,  Ben  Hill,  Governor 
English  have  been  and  are  still  leaders  of  the  Democratic 
party  north  and  south,  and  a  part  of  the  long  line  to  which 
this  platform  refers.  Its  long  lines  of  doctrines  and  tra- 
ditions began  with  its  attempt  to  steal  the  territories  from 
freedom  and  to  dedicate  them  to  slavery,  supplemented  by 
an  attempt  to  steal  the  island  of  Cuba  for  the  same  pur- 
pose. In  1856  the  Democratic  party,  in  national  conven- 
tion assembled,  denied  the  power  of  the  general  govern- 
ment to  charter  a  national  bank,  pledged  itself  to  resist  all 
attempts  in  Congress  or  out  of  it  to  agitate  the  slavery 
question,  and  resolved  that  the  party  would  faithfully 
abide  by  and  uphold  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  cele- 


20  POLITICAL  OEATOKY. 

brated  secession  Kentucky  and  Virginia  resolutions  of 
1798.  It  adopted  those  principles  as  constituting  one  of 
the  main  foundations  of  its  political  creed,  and  resolved  to 
carry  them  out;  and  in  1880  the  same  party  declares:  '  We 
pledge  ourselves  anew  to  the  constitutional  doctrines  and 
traditions  of  the  Democratic  party/  '• 

Campaign  listeners  of  the  days  of  1868  will  recall 
many  of  Mr.  Storrs'  droll  hits  at  Governor  Seymour, 
the  candidate  for  Democratic  presidency.  It  will  be 
remembered  how  in  October  of  that  year,  the  Governor 
had  visited  Chicago  and  addressed  a  meeting  in  the 
old  Court  House  square,  and  how  Mr.  Storrs  reviewed 
him  at  Library  Hall  a  few  days  later. 

"About  six  years  ago,"  said  Mr.  Storrs,  "I  was  riding 
through  Greenwood  cemetery,  and  I  observed  a  venerable 
looking  person  apparently  examining  a  monument  not  yet 
entirely  constructed.  Being  somewhat  curious  in  the 
matter,  I  asked  the  person  in  charge  of  the  grounds  who 
that  old  man  was  that  was  bossing  the  tombstone.  He 
told  me  that  it  was  the  owner  of  the  tombstone,  and  that 
he  was  fixing  it  up  for  his  own  accommodation.  It 
appeared  to  me  to  be  a  melancholy  kind^  of  amusement ; 
but  I  was  satisfied  last  Saturday  night  that  that  venerable 
old  gentleman  was  not  the  only  man  engaged  in  the  same 
kind  of  business.  For  I  saw,  standing  on  the  steps  of  the 
north  door  of  the  Court  House,  surrounded  by  his  friends, 
some  of  whom  he  had  brought  with  him  from  the  city  of 
New  York,  a  gentleman  observing  the  preparations  for  his 
own  funeral,  and  with  a  melancholy  kind  of  jocularity 
engaging  in  them.  Horatio  Seymour  has  been  here. 
Horatio  Seymour  has  gone.  'Why  should  we  mourn 
departed  friends?'" 

The  Governor  in  one  of  his  speeches  had  said  that 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  21 

Grant  and  Colfax  were  in  full  retreat  and  he  had 
brought  them  in  as  captives. 

"It  is,"  said  Mr.  Storrs,  "a  good  deal  such  a  capture 
as  was  accomplished  by  the  hunter  on  the  plains  when  h 
was  sent  out  at  night  to  shoot  a  buffalo  for  his  friends. 
He  hit  the  buffalo,  and  just  barely  hit  him,  and  maddened 
him.  The  old  beast  started  for  the  hunter,  who  was  on 
horseback,  and  went  vigorously  for  him.  The  dust  flew  in 
large  quantities,  and  the  hunter  made  for  the  camp 
immediately.  They  arrived  in  sight  of  it,  and  he,  in 
order  to  keep  up  his  reputation  for  courage,  took  off  his 
hat  and  valiantly  swung  it,  and  hardly  able  to  keep  away 
from  the  enraged  buffalo,  shouted,  '  Here  we  come  !  You 
sent  me  after  a  buffalo,  and  I  will  bring  it  to  you  alive  I" 

The  same  Democratic  favorite  after  having  been 
nominated,  declined  three  or  four  times  before  he  would 
stand  as  a  candidate. 

"And  now,"  said  his  ridiculer,  "that  the  New  York 
World  and  other  papers  think  that  he  had  better  quit,  he 
seems  as  resolutely  disposed  not  to  quit  as  he  was  resolutely 
disposed  not  to  run.  In  that  particular  he  is  a  good  deal 
like  Sam  Casey's  calf.  Sam  said  he  had  to  pull  his  ears 
off  to  get  him  to  suck,  and  then  to  pull  his  tail  off  to  get 
him  to  quit." 

Criticising  Mr.  Seymour's  speech  upon  the  issues  of 
the  campaign,  Mr.  Storrs  remarked : 

"  He  said  not  a  word  about  his  own  platform,  and  he 
thereby  admits  that  it  is  indefensible.  He  has  not  said  a 
word  against  our  platform,  and  thereby  he  admits  that  it 
is  unassailable.  He  stands  in  the  position  of  the  ox  just 
half  jumped  over  the  fence,  utterly  worthless  either  for 
aggressive  or  defensive  purposes." 

But  Mr.  Storrs  could  be  terribly  bitter  in  his  treat- 
ment of  even  such  political  opponents  to  his  party  as 


22  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

was  Horatio  Seymour.  His  thrilling  comparison  of  the 
two  letters  which  passed  between  Seymour  arid  Lincoln 
in  the  Rebellion  times  —  the  one  letter  imprudently 
demanding  that  the  draft  should  be  suspended  until  the 
constitutionality  of  the  law  should  be  tested  by  the 
courts,  and  the  other  promptly  replying  that  the  time 
allowed  no  delay,  that  a  nation's  life  was  imperiled— 
can  never  be  forgotten  by  those  who  listened  to  the 
speaker  as  with  trumpet  tones,  he  exclaimed  : 

"  As  thoroughly  as  I  dislike  the  record  which  Horatio 
Seymour  has  made,  as  malignant  and  as  dangerous  as  I 
deem  it  to  be,  as  great  as  I  conceive  the  punishment  for 
those  offenses  ought  to  be,  yet  I  could  ask  that  no  severer 
punishment  be  visited  upon  him  than  that  the  spirit  of 
those  two  letters,  taking  visible  shape,  should  march  down 
the  aisles  of  history  together.  How,  as  we  stood  upon  some 
elevated  table  land,  where  we  could  watch  their  progress, 
would,  as  the  distance  lengthened  out,  the  spirit  of  Hora- 
tio Seymour's  letter  warp,  and  dwindle,  and  halt,  and 
wither,  while  that  of  our  grand  old  patriotic  President, 
growing  greater  and  greater  as  the  years  receded,  swelling 
into  loftier  and  grander  proportions  as  the  mist  of  preju- 
dice and  passion  cleared  away  from  it,  disclosing  in  its  out- 
lines the  perfect  symmetry  of  patriotic,  high-hearted  faith 
in  the  great  cause  for  which  he  died,  would  challenge  the 
admiration  of  all  the  ages,  reaching  at  last  the  highest 
summits  of  historic  renown.  We  would  all  find  that  as  we 
gazed  upon  it  we  stood  in  the  presence  of  a  great  character. 
Before  it  we  would,  with  uncovered  head,  reverently  bow. 
We  would  hail  and  salute  it.  Thus  would  the  muse  of  his- 
tory, making  up  the  records  of  human  achievements, 
address  it :  '  Stand  up,  Abraham  Lincoln,  among  the 
greatest  and  the  noblest,  and  the  best  of  this  world's  his- 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  23 

tory.'  And,  looking  about,  discovering  the  halting  spirit 
of  Horatio  Seymour  had,  in  some  mysterious  way,  cork- 
screwed itself  into  that  glorious  company  where  it  did  not 
belong,  it  would  address  him,  saying:  ' Stand  down, 
Horatio  Seymour,  among  the  falterers,  and  sneaks,  and 
cowards,  and  doubters,  and  those  who  sought  to  obstruct 
the  march  of  a  great  nation,  as  it  was  resolutely  treading 
the  road  which  led  to  the  clear  atmospheres  of  freedom.' " 

The  power  possessed  by  Mr.  Storrs  for  holding  up 
to  the  ridicule  of  laughing  auditors,  the  unfortunate 
blunders  and  utterances  of  some  candidate,  was  exerted 
against  Mr.  Tilden  in  a  way  which  can  never  be  separ- 
ated from  that  really  great  statesman's  career.  To  the 
well-informed  political  student  a  half-sad  laugh  must 
ever,  unfortunately  perhaps,  be  linked  with  the  political 
utterances  of  "  Sammy  J."  Take,  for  instance,  Mr. 
Storrs'  fun  with  him,  in  a  Cincinnati  speech,  over  his 
letter  of  declination: 

"  "When  the  Democratic  party  becomes  sentimental,  it 
is  time  for  those  whose  digestion  operates  in  the  ordinary 
way  to  become  alarmed.  Their  sentiment  is  Mr.  Tilden  ; 
and  at  the  expense  of  being  somewhat  tedious,  I  wish  to 
read  to  you  quite  briefly  one  of  the  most  tender,  one  of  the 
most  pathetic,  and  one  of  the  most  tearful  contributions  to 
political  literature  —  his  recent  letter  of  declination.  Here 
I  intend  to  be  fair,  absolutely  fair.  Last  week,  in  the 
city  of  Chicago,  I  did  a  great  injustice.  I  intimated  in  a 
speech,  which  it  was  my  good  fortune  there  to  deliver, 
that  his  intellect  was  impaired,  and  that  his. sagacity  had 
become  enfeebled.  I  was  mistaken  ;  I  am  mistaken  ;  and 
no  better  proof  of  my  mistake  can  be  furnished  than  the 
fact  that  within  three  days  after  the  nomination  of  Elaine 
and  Logan  he  sent  in  his  letter  of  declination.  All  this 


24  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

demonstrates  that  Samuel  J.  Tilden  is  just  as  keen,  and 
sharp,  and  far-sighted  as  he  has  ever  been.  He  has  taken, 
Mr.  Chairman,  to  his  earthworks  and  fortifications  early. 
He  has  seen  the  storm  coming  up  from  the  West.  And 
Samuel  J.  Tilden  is  in  out  of  the  rain.  I  shall  not  read 
all  his  letter.  The  life  of  man  is  limited  to  about  seventy 
years,  ordinarily,  and  you  cannot  expect  me  to  consume  all 
that  time  in  reading  a  tearful,  sobbing  epistle  from  the 
great  railroad  wrecker  of  the  continent,  who  is  the  spirit  of 
the  present  Democratic  party  manifest  in  the  flesh ;  and 
whoever  is  nominated  will  be  but  the  reflection  of  Samuel 
J.  Tilden.  Just  one  sentence,  and  then  I  am  going  to  ask 
who  wrote  this : 

"  'Twenty  years  of  continuous  maladministration,  under 
the  demoralizing  influences  of  intestine  war  and  of  bad 
finance,  have  infected  the  whole  governmental  system  of 
the  United  States  with  the  cancerous  growths  of  false  con- 
structions and  corrupt  practices/ 

"I  have  a  right,  every  human  being  in  this  country, 
proud  of  what  it  is  and  hopeful  of  what  it  is  to  be,  has  a 
right  to  denounce  that  as  a  wicked  and  malicious  slander 
upon  the  most  glorious  period  in  our  history  or  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world.  I  don't  take  to  this  kindly.  What  has 
been  the  history  of  that  twenty  years ;  that  this  man 
whom  I  will  not  now  further  attempt  to  characterize, 
denounces  as  ' cancerous  maladministration?'  In  that 
twenty  years  this  great  party,  for  which  this  imperial  state 
speaks  to-night,  in  that  time  it  has  crowded  a  thousand 
years  of  the  most  glorious  history  that  this  world  has  ever 
witnessed.  Within  that  twenty  years  Abraham  Lincoln 
has  b3en  elected.  Within  that  twenty  years  this  party  of 
'maladministration'  has  lifted  four  millions  of  human 
beings  from  the  night  and  savagery  and  barbarism  of  chat- 
telhood  into  the  clear,  bracing  and  elevated  air  of  American 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  25 

citizenship.  And  yet  with  such  an  achievement,  that  ' 
shines  with  the  light  of  planets  against  the  sky,  a  railroad 
wrecker,  embodying  the  sentiments  of  his  party,  speaks  of 
it  as  a  career  of  '  maladministration/  Within  that  time 
this  ( intestine  war'  to  which  he  refers — this  intestine  war 
which,  in  1864,  he  declared  was  a  failure,  was  waged — a 
Union  has  been  saved  and  the  greatest  achievement  ever 
recorded  in  history,  passed  to  the  credit  of  the  Republican 
party,  represented  here  to-night.  Within  that  twenty 
years,  in  that  splendid,  that  glorious  twenty  years,  the 
national  honor  has  been  saved  against  the  assaults  of  his 
own  party,  who  sought  to  destroy  it.  In  that  twenty  years 
the  national  credit  has  been  maintained,  when  he  and  his 
party  would  have  debauched  our  honor  by  the  repudiation 
of  our  public  debt.  Within  that  length  of  time  this  admin- 
istration, which  he  characterizes  as  *  maladministration/ 
has  taken  a  newly-made  citizen  by  the  hand,  has  made  him 
a  citizen,  has  given  him  the  right  of  suffrage,  has  embodied 
that  right  in  the  constitution,  and,  by  the  grace  and  help 
of  God,  means  to  secure  him  in  its  full  enjoyment. 

"  That  is  the  '  maladministration '  of  which  Mr.  Samuel 
J.  Tilden  speaks.  This  glorious  apostle  of  our  history 
closes  with  this  tender  and  touching  appeal  which  I  shall 
have  occasion  to  say  to  you  has  made  the  eyes  of  Democrats 
suffuse  with  tears,  choked  their  utterance,  and  has  almost 
smothered  them  with  sobs  : 

"  <  Having  given  to  their  welfare  whatever  of  health  and 
strength  I  possessed,  or  could  borrow  from  the  future,  and 
having  reached  the  term  of  my  capacity  for  such  labors  as 
their  welfare  now  demands,  I  but  submit  to  the  will  of 
God  in  deeming  my  public  career  for  ever  closed.  SAMUEL 
J.  TILDES.' 

"That  letter  was  written  in  the  mansion  made  famous  by 
receipts  of  cipher  dispatches,  upon  the  walls  of  which  hung 


26  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

the  skeletons  of  wrecked  railroads  and  other  corporations  ! 
Samuel  J.  Tilden,  with  his  hand  on  the  bung  of  his  barrel, 
ecorously  submits  himself  to  the  will  of  God. 

"  That  is  very  kind  of  Mr.  Tilden.  This  tender  epistle 
goes  all  over  the  country.  The  distinguished  mayor  of 
Chicago  reads  it — and  he  is  a  distinguished  man  ;  he  is  a 
genuine,  straight-forward  Democrat.  I  supposed  him  to 
be  over  and  above  the  sympathetic.  But  it  goes  right  to 
the  tender  heart  of  Chicago's  mayor,  and  he  says:  'As  I 
read  it  my  eyes  were  dimmed  with  tears,  my  utterance  was 
choked,  my  heart  filled  with  sobs,  and  a  great  grief  over- 
came me.'  This  is  the  sentiment  and  the  sympathy  of  the 
Democratic  party.  'Willie,  we  have  missed  you/  lam 
anxious  to  see  that  party  turned  into  a  purely  emotional 
and  sympathetic  entertainment.  I  am  anxious  to  see  the 
club  of  'rounders 'in  New  York;  the  representatives  of 
the  horny-handed  and  the  hard-fisted,  who  have  made  night 
hideous  with  their  yells  in  many  campaigns  ;  I  am  anxious 
to  see  the  belligerent  Democrats  of  our  great  cities  whose 
ears  have  been  bit  off  in  some  joint  debate,  whose  noses 
have  been  broken  in  some  election  contest,  gather  unto  the 
shadow  of  weeping  willows,  marching  to  funeral  music  in 
a  great  sympathetic  campaign.  Why,  think  of  the  old 
party  ?  Think  of  its  universal  crookedness  —  a  party  that 
never  did  a  right  thing  in  its  whole  life  !  As  I  see  it  to-day 
weaving  and  winding  out  on  the  tariff  question,  Mr.  Chair- 
man, I  am  reminded  of  the  experience  of  the  boy  in  that 
good  old  county  Cattaraugus,  in  the  state  of  New  York, 
where  I  was  born.  Our  mothers  were  good,  prudent, 
thrifty  women.  When  our  trousers  were  worn  one  side 
they  were  turned  the  other  way,  so  that  when  you  watched 
a  tow-headed  boy  you  could  not  tell  whether  he  was  going 
to  school  or  coming  home.  It's  the  same  with  the  Demo- 
cratic party.  Watch  this  Democratic  party  with  its  politi- 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  27 

cal  feet  cross-eyed,  with  its  right  political  foot  on  its  left 
political  leg.  Take  the  tariff  question,  take  the  question 
of  the  support  of  the  public-credit,  take  the  subject  of  the 
vindication  of  the  public  honor  —  in  favor,  they  say,  of 
preserving  and  maintaining  the  national  dignity  ;  and  yet 
voting  appropriations^  money  to  build  gunboats,  and  then 
refusing  to  vote  an  appropriation  of  money  to  supply  the 
guns." 

The  foregoing  are  types  of  the  lighter  side  of  Mr. 
Storrs'  intellect.  They  occur  all  through  his  speeches, 
but  not  more  frequently  than  such  splendid  passages  as : 

"I  like  sometimes  to  figure  in  my  imagination  our 
nation  taking  a  physical  form  and  shape.  How  great,  how 
radiant,  how  transcendent  seems  to  be  the  genius  of  our 
institutions  !  How  much  grander  than  on  any  other  occa- 
sion does  she  appear  when  descending  from  her  radiant 
throne  she  takes  the  trembling  citizen,  white  or  black, 
native  or  foreign  born,  by  the  hand,  and  covering  him  with 
her  shield  leads  him  safely  to  the  polls,  and  protects  him 
there  until  he  casts  a  free  and  unconstrained  ballot.  That 
is  justice." 

Nor  do  jibes  appear  in  his  efforts  as  frequently  as 
such  beautiful  sentiments  as : 

"  I  love  to  talk  to  young  men,  and  to  this  young  and 
giant  West.  I  believe  in  the  dreams  that  young  men 
dream,  and  in  the  visions  that  young  men  see,  and  in  the 
castles  that  young  men  build.  For  where  without  the 
dreams  of  the  young  men,  lighting  up  the  future  with 
human  possibilities,  would  be  the  deeds  of  the  old  men, 
dignifying  the  past  with  heroic  achievements.  Young 
men  of  this  district,  be  brave,  be  hopeful,  be  true.  Believ- 
ing always  more  in  the  goodness  of  God  than  in  the  dex- 
terity of  the  devil,  rest  assured  that  in  the  long  run  the 


28  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

right  side  is  the  strong  side,  and  no  expediency  can  finally 
succeed  which  has  not  justice  for  its  foundation.  Let  your 
courage  increase  as  dangers  thicken,  and  as  difficulties 
multiply.  Be  not  disheartened  by  long  delay,  nor  elated 
by  hopes  of  too  easy  success.  The  providence  of  God  rules 
this  world,  and  the  nations  thereof,  and,  true  to  Him  and 
to  yourselves,  our  country  may  yet  become  the  incarnation 
of  all  that  is  wise  and  just  in  human  government,  and  the 
lighted  torch  which  she  carries  shall  bring  health  and 
healing  to  all  the  nations." 

Describing  the  sweep  of  an  on-coming  Republican 
storm  of  victory  at  the  polls,  he  exclaimed  : 

"  Gentlemen,  the  first-heard  patterings  of  the  coming 
storm  are  here.  The  great  droppings  are  beginning  to  fall 
on  the  far  Pacific  coast.  It  gathers  volume  as  it  moves 
west.  The  roar  of  the  advancing  multitudes  fills  all  the 
sky,  and  the  gleam  of  their  fires  on  every  hill  fills  the 
whole  heavens  with  flame. 

"  When  the  mighty  storm,  gathering  force  and  volume 
as  it  proceeds,  strikes  those  eastern  states,  then  there  will 
be  a  deluge  that  will  bury  in  one  common  watery,  dishon- 
orable grave  Democrat  and  Independent  alike." 

Himself,  on  account  of  physical  weakness,  never  in 
the  army,  at  a  grand  soldiers'  banquet,  at  which  he  was 
called  upon  for  a  toast,  he  pled  forcibly  for  the  brave 
ones  who  remained  at  home,  and  said  among  other 
things  in  fine  antithesis : 

"  Not  alone  to  the  soldier  does  the  glory  of  the  great 
triumph  belong.  Every  single  citizen  who  cast  even  the 
measure  of  his  influence  on  the  right  side  is  entitled  to 
share  in  this  common  glory.  History  will  inscribe,  in 
making  up  her  final  and  impartial  judgments,  on  parallel 
lines,  the  solid  heroism  and  sturdy  sense  of  Grant,  and  the 


POLITICAL  ORATORY,  29 

patient,  long-suffering  loyalty  of  Lincoln;  the  grand 
strategy  of  Sherman,  and  the  wise  counsels  of  Seward;  the 
dashing  and  intrepid  valor  of  Sheridan,  and  the  devoted 
love  of  country  of  Eichard  Yates;  the  fiery  energy  and 
splendid  generalship  of  Logan,  and  the  wise  statesmanship 
of  Morton;  the  dauntless  courage  of  fighting  Joe  Hooker, 
and  the  resolute  and  uncomprising  patriotism  and  sense  of 
justice  of  Zachariah  Chandler.  Upon  these  imperishable 
records  there  will  be  inscribed  not  only  the  names  of  the 
great  leaders  in  the  great  cause,  but  the  humblest  worker 
in  its  behalf  will  find  his  name  upon  its  pages.  Bright  and 
shining  on  those  resplendent  annals  shall  appear  the  names 
of  those  thousands  of  noble,  heroic  and  self-sacrificing 
women  who  organized  and  carried  forward  to  triumphant 
success  a  colossal  sanitary  and  charitable  scheme,  the  like 
of  which,  in  nobility  of  conception  and  perfectness  of  exe- 
cution, the  world  has  never  before  witnessed,  and  which 
carried  all  around  the  globe  the  fame  and  the  name  of  the 
women  of  America.  From  camp  to  camp,  from  battle- 
field to  battle-field,  through  the  long  and  toilsome  march, 
by  day  and  by  night,  these  sacred  charities  followed,  and 
the  prayers  of  the  devoted  and  the  true  were  ceaselessly 
with  you.  Leagues  and  leagues  separated  you  from  home, 
but  the  blessings  there  invoked  upon  you  hovered  over  and 
around  you,  and  sweetened  your  sleep  like  angels'  visits. 
While  the  boy  soldier  slept  by  his  camp  fire  at  night  and 
dreamed  of  home,  and  what  his  valor  would  achieve  for 
his  country,  uttered  in  his  dreams  prayers  for  the  loved 
ones  who  had  made  that  home  so  dear  to  him,  the  mother 
dreaming  of  her  son  breathed  at  the  same  time  prayers  for 
his  safety  and  for  the  triumph  of  his  cause.  The  prayers 
and  blessings  of  mother  and  son,  borne  heavenward^,  met 
in  the  bosom  of  their  common  God  and  Father." 

This  classical  and  Periclean  style  of  oratory  of  Mr. 


30  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

Storrs,  occurring  so  frequently  in  his  preserved  literary 
remains,  is  perhaps  nowhere  better  shown  than  in  his 
eulogy  upon  Charles  Sumner,  uttered  by  him  just  after 
that  prominent  American's  death  in  1875,  during  a 
Decoration  address.  He  said  of  him : 

"A  deed  of  patriotic  heroism  is  in  its  effects  eternal. 
It  possesses  an  indestructible  vitality.  The  heroic  deeds 
of  which  blind  old  Homer  sung,  hav«  come  down  to  us 
across  the  chasm  of  thousands  of  years,  and  to-day  inspire 
the  farmer  boy  upon  the  hillside  and  the  prairie  with  high 
and  noble  resolve.  Great  deeds  and  great  men  make  great 
nations.  The  Greece  of  to-day  has  the  same  hills  and  the 
same  valleys  that  it  had  two  thousand  years  ago — the 
same  sky  bends  over  it  to-day  that  canopied  it  then  ;  but 
Pericles  and  Phidias,  Plato,  Demosthenes,  and  the  great 
men  who  made  Athens  the  seat  of  culture  and  philosophy, 
are  no  more,  and  Greece  —  the  Greece —  lives  no  longer. 
And  so  our  country,  young  as  it  is,  is  the  country  which  our 
great  and  patriotic  men  have  made  it.  Into  the  current 
of  our  national  history  the  heroic  deeds  of  the  Union  sol- 
dier have  passed.  Their  names  'history  will  never  will- 
ingly permit  to  die/ 

"We  speak  a  few  weak  words ;  but  the  great  heart's  gone  to  God. 
They  have  fought  with  their  swords,  won  our  battles,  red,  wet-shod ! 
While  we  sat  at  home  new  laurels  for  our  land  they  went  to  win, 
And  with  smiles  Valhalla  lightens  as  our  heroes  enter  in. 
They  bore  our  banners  fearless  to  the  death  as  to  the  fight, 
They  raised  our  nation  peerless  to  the  old  heroic  height. 
We  weep  not  for  the  heroes  whom  we  never  more  shall  see, 
We  weep  we  were  not  with  them  in  their  ruddy  revelry. 

"But  not  alone  in  the  rude  shock  of  battle  were  the 
great  results  to  which  I  have  referred  accomplished.  The 
rebellion  was  a  contest  between  opposing  ideas,  and 
long  before  they  flamed  out  into  war  had  they  been  brooded 
over  by  the  thinker,  urged  upon  the  platform,  proclaimed 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  31 

through  the  press,  declaimed  upon  the  stump,  debated  in 
Congress,  discussed  and  argued  in  the  courts.  The  great 
champion  of  the  cause  for  which  the  soldier  died,  lived 
to  see  its  complete  triumph  — and  then  he  passed  away. 
"From  his  boyhood,  through  obloquy  and  abuse, 
Charles  Sumner  stood  forth  the  unflinching,  unswerving 
champion  of  the  rights  of  man.  It  would  ill  become  me 
to  attempt  to  pronounce  a  eulogy  upon  Charles  Sumner. 
That  work  has  been  so  well,  so  beautifully,  so  feelingly 
and  truthfully  done  already  in  every  city  in  the  country  that 
it  would  be  an  impertinence  in  me  to  undertake  the  task. 
But  the  great  leading  features  of  Mr.  Sumner's  character, 
intellectual  and  moral,  were  of  such  transcendent  merit, 
that  surely  it  will  be  well  if  his  example  is  constantly  kept 
before  us,  and  our  public  men.  A  man  of  the  broadest 
culture,  and  the  largest  literary  acquirements,  he  never 
employed  them  for  the  promotion  of  his  own  personal  ends, 
nor  for  any  purpose  of  self-aggrandizement.  He  never 
used  his  vast  learning  to  tickle  the  ears  of  the  multitude, 
nor  were  his  literary  quotations,  numerous  and  beautiful 
as  they  were,  ever  employed  to  gild  an  unworthy  purpose. 
His  intellectual  fiber  was  of  the  most  perfect  rectitude. 
He  could  no  more  take  a  position  that  he  did  not  believe 
to  be  right  than  he  could  change  his  nature.  He  made  up 
his  mind  that  the  institution  of  slavery  was  a  blistering 
shame  to  our  civilization,  that  it  was  a  relic  of  barbarism; 
and  thus  believing,  he  so  declared,  when  to  make  the 
declaration  brought  upon  him  not  only  "frowns  from,  and 
alienation  of,  old  friends,  but  personal  violence,  from  the 
effects  of  which  he  never  recovered.  In  the  midst  of  the 
tempest  which  surrounded  him,  he  stood  unmoved  and 

immovable. 

"  Those  perilous  times  came  when,  cringing  beneath 

the  threat?  of  the  slave  power,  bent  on   destroying  the 


32  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

Union,  the  cry  of  compromise  filled  the  air,  and  frightened 
politicians  hastened  to  abandon  the  professions  of  a  life- 
time ;  hastened  to  give  back  to  the  slave  power  all  that 
years  of  manly  struggle  had  wrested  from  it ;  hastened  to 
renounce  every  principle  secured  by  the  election  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  in  order — vain  hope — to  appease  their 
Southern  brethren,  and  to  persuade  them  not  to  leave  us. 
Not  so  Charles  Sumner.  Upon  the  eternal  rocks  had  he 
planted  his  feet,  and  there  was  he  determined  that  they 
should  remain,  and  they  did  remain.  How  splendidly  he 
stands  out  to-day  as  he  then  stood,  now  that  the  mists  of 
passion  and  prejudice  have  cleared  away  and  revealed  his 
true  position  to  us. 

"  The  war  came  :  it  was  inevitable.  We  all  remember 
how  reluctantly  we  accepted  the  conclusion;  how  for  weeks 
and  dreary  months  we  dallied  and  toyed  with  the  slave, 
fearing  to  touch  the  question,  and  even  returning  the 
slave  to  his  rebel  master,  hoping  still  to  appease  him  and 
persuade  him  back.  But  Charles  Sumner  knew  that 
there  could  be  no  reconciliation  until  one  or  the  other  of 
the  opposing  ideas,  freedom  or  slavery,  perished.  Years 
before  in  his  college  halls,  he  had  chosen  under  which  ban- 
ner he  would  be  found.  His  splendid  rhetoric,  now  per- 
suading and  now  denouncing  ;  his  powerful  logic  was  day 
and  night,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  employed  to  press 
upon  the  government  the  necessity  of  making  the  issue 
d  irect,  offering  the  slave  his  freedom,  and  using  his  services 
as  a  Union  soldier.  The  proclamation  of  Emancipation 
came.  I  do  not  attribute  this  result  solely  to  Mr.  Sumner, 
nor  do  I  say  that  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  see  its  necessity  quite 
as  clearly  as  did  Mr.  Sumner.  Their  positions  were  entirely 
different.  Their  responsibilities  were  different.  The 
merit  of  this  great  measure  can  be  attributed  to  no  one 
man. 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  33 

"  But  as  the  war  progressed  —  defeat  following  defeat 
in  swift  and  sickening  succession  —  Charles  Sumner  was 
found  the  earnest  advocate  of  every  measure  by  which  our 
soldiers  could  be  sustained  in  the  field  and  the  great  con- 
test finally  pushed  through  to  success.  During  all  these 
years  Charles  Sumner  never  for  one  moment  lost  sight  of 
that  down-trodden  race  in  whose  cause  he  had,  when  a  boy, 
enlisted.  When  the  war  closed  the  question  faced  the 
country  and  could  not  be  avoided,  '  What  shall  be  done 
with  the  negro?'  The  slave-holder  thought  in  the  pacifica- 
ting  policy  pursued  by  Andrew  Johnson,  that  he  saw  an 
opportunity  to  still  retain  the  old  power  over  the  slave ; 
penal  codes  were  adopted  by  the  seceding  states,  the  effect 
of  which  would  have  been  to  reduce  the  negro  to  sub- 
stantially his  old  condition.  The  people  were  wearied  with 
the  slave  question,  wearied  of  the  war,  anxious  at  once  to 
heal  the  breaches  which  it  had  made,  and  disposed  to  be 
careless  as  to  the  means.  The  danger  was  imminent. 
Faithful  through  the  years  which  have  since  passed, 
Charles  Sumner  stood  sentinel,  and  never  rested  his  labors 
until  the  negro  was  not  only  a  freeman  but  a  citizen. 

"  The  last  crowning  glory  of  his  life,  his  '  Civil  Rights' 
bill,  has  just  ripened  into  law,  and  by  it  every  vestige  of 
the  old  slave  system  is  wiped  away.  His  'works  did 
follow  him/  and  almost  his  last  words  were  'take  care  of 
my  Civil  Eights  bill.' 

"And  thus  his  career  ended.  Where  shall  we  find  a 
nobler,  a  more  patriotic,  a  more  lofty  one?  But  one  great 
feature  which  distinguishes  his  career  I  have  not  yet  noted. 
The  negro  having  secured  the  privileges  of  citizenship, 
Charles  Sumner  showed  to  the  world  that  the  warfare 
which  he  had  waged  in  his  behalf  was  based  upon  no  mean 
considerations  of  personal  hatred  toward  the  master.  Ac- 
cordingly the  great  heart  that  bled  for  the  slave,  when  he 


34  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

was  in  the  agony  of  his  bondage,  after  his  release,  sorrowed 
for  the  master  in  the  trouble  which  environed'  him.  The 
great  purpose  of  his  life  had  been  accomplished,  and  he 
turned  his  mind  to  relieving  the  oppressed  whites  of  the 
South.  His  idea  of  human  rights  knew  no  distinction  of 
color  or  of  creed;  and  Charles  Sumner,  he  who  but  ten  short 
years  ago,  had  he  then  died,  would  have  been  execrated  by 
the  entire  South,  to-day  finds  the  old  slave-holder  and  the 
old  slave  alike  sincere  mourners  at  his  grave,  both  feeling 
that  they  have  lost  a  friend  whom  money  could  not  buy, 
whom  power  and  threats  could  not  coerce.  Over  the 
grave  of  this  great  moral  and  intellectual  hero  we  drop  the 
tear  of  affection  and  reverence.  It,  too,  shall  we  clothe  with 
flowers,  for  in  that  grave  rests  all  that  is  mortal  of  a  states- 
man as  pure  in  heart,  and  lofty  and  patriotic  in  purpose, 
as  ever  brightened  the  pages  of  history. 

"  His  spirit  stands  to-day  face  to  face  with  the  soldier 
of  the  Union  whose  cause  he  so  valiantly  maintained.  The 
Confederate  who  once  deemed  him  his  bitterest  enemy, 
now  knows  that  he  was  his  friend.  Around  the  grave  of 
such  a  man,  all  citizens  of  a  restored  Union  can  meet.  In 
that  solemn  presence  all  bitterness  is  vanished.  Adapting 
to  my  purpose  the  language  of  a  great  master  of  Eng- 
lish literature,  I  would  say  to  North  and  South,  black  and 
white  alike:  '  Oh,  brothers,  enemies  no  more,  let  us  take 
a  mournful  hand  together,  as  we  stand  over  his  grave,  and 
call  a  truce  to  battle.  Hush,  strife  and  quarrel,  over  the 
the  solemn  grave.  Sound,  trumpets,  a  mournful  march. 
Fall,  dark  curtain/  upon  a  life  thus  gloriously  closed." 

Such  was  his  estimate  of  a  great  patriot,  while  of 
patriotism  itself  he  said: 

"  Patriotism  knows  neither  latitude  nor  longitude.  It 
is  not  climatic,  It  thrives  on  the  cold  and  rugged  moun- 


POLITICAL  ORATOEY.  35 

tain  tops  of  our  extremest  East;  it  flourishes  on  the  fertile 
field  and  abounding  prairies  of  the  West;  it  flowers  out  and 
blossoms  into  splendid  fruitage  on  the  plantations  of  the 
South.  Think  of  your  country  and  live  for  your  children. 
It  is  worthy  of  it  all.  Young  man,  never  fall  into  the  error 
of  supposing  that  interest  in  these  great  questions  must  be 
beneath  you.  It  cannot.  The  man  who  thinks  himself 
above  politics  is  making  a  double  mistake.  He  is  over- 
estimating himself,  and  is  underestimating  all  that  mag- 
nificent science  which  should  determine  how  best  the  inter- 
ests of  50,000,000  of  people  might  be  promoted.  Young 
men,  I  honor  your  ambitions,  and  I  honor  all  your  dreams. 
I  honor  every  vision  that  you  see  in  the  greatness  of  our 
country  in  the  future,  and  your  honorable  and  distinguished 
part  in  it.  I  am  a  young  man  myself  and  always  shall 
be.  I  believe  in  the  visions  that  young  men  see.  I  believe 
in  the  reality  of  the  castles  that  they  build.  I  believe  in 
the  fruition  and  performance  of  these  splendid  dreams. 
For  all  those  golden  visions,  all  those  glittering  dreams, 
are  but  the  promises  of  the  future.  '  For  where,  where, 
without  the  dreams  of  the  young  men  lighting  up  all  the 
future  and  making  it  radiant  and  splendid  with  human 
possibilities,  would  be  the  deeds  of  the  old  men  glorifying 
the  past  with  human  achievements?" 

His  close  to  a  grand  oration  upon  the  struggle  be- 
tween the  North  and  South  can  well  end  this  chapter 
of  general  illustrations. 

"The  inevitable  end  came,  the  triumph  of  right  over 
wrong,  of  justice  over  injustice,  and  the  -rebellion  fell  in 
utter  wreck,  with  a  resounding  crash  that  was  heard  by 
all  nations.  The  great  cause  of  the  Union,  with  spotless 
robes,  with  shining  face  and  majestic  form,  came  forth  to 
meet  and  receive  the  surrender  of  her  adversary.  From 


36  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

murky  battle-cloud,  from  stifling  slave  pen,  the  dark  spirit 
of  secession  and  slavery  emerged;  her  garments  stained 
with  the  blood  of  the  slave,  her  brow  in  gloom,  the  lust  of 
power  and  pride  of  empire  in  her  eyes.  Forth  she  came, 
and  prostrating  herself  before  the  majestic  presence  in  which 
she  stood,  surrendered  herself,  the  guilty  cause  of  a  wicked 
rebellion/' 


III. 

EARLY  POLITICAL  SPEECHES. 

THE  KANSAS  TROUBLES  —  '58  —  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  DEMO- 
CRATIC MISRULE  FORETOLD —  FOURTH  OF  JULY,  1854 — 
OUR  NATION'S  FUTURE  —  LINCOLN'S  EMANCIPATION 
PROCLAMATION  —  JOHNSON'S  SOUTHERN  POLICY. 

«  T  HAVE  always  been  a  Republican,"  said  Mr.  Storrs 
I  in  a  speech  delivered  in  Horticultural  Hall,  Phila- 
delphia, in  the  fall  of  1880.  "  The  Lord  was  very  good 
to  me,  and  postponed  my  birth  so  late  that  I  never  had 
occasion  to  vote  the  Democratic  ticket.  I  voted  first 
for  John  C.  Fremont.  I  kept  straight  at  it  ever  since, 
voting  the  Republican  ticket." 

Two  years  after  he  cast  his  first  vote,  Mr.  Storrs 
addressed  a  mass  meeting  at  Ellicottsville,  Cattaraugus 
county,  New  York  state,  October  19, 1858,  in  behalf  of 
the  Republican  candidates  at  the  state  election.  In  that 
speech  he  reviewed  the  questions  at  issue  between  Repub- 
licans and  Democrats,  which  finally  culminated  in  open 
war,and  particularly  the  dispute  on  the  admission  of  Kan- 
sas as  a  state  under  Buchanan's  administration,  which 
at  that  time  was  agitating  the  whole  country.  His 
first  political  address  of  which  there  is  any  record  is 
characterized  by  the  same  maturity  of  thought,  the 
same  clear  logic,  and  the  same  pointed  wit  that  marked 
the  best  eiforts  of  his  later  life. 

In  those  days  the  Democratic  party  assumed  to  oe 
the  sole  friends  and  guardians  of  the  Union,  and  every 

37 


38  POLITICAL  OfcATORY. 

attempt  to  impose  restrictions  upon  the  slave-holding 
power  was  met  by  clamorous  protestations,  that  unless 
the  slave-holders  were  allowed  to  have  their  own  way, 
the  Union  would  be  broken  up.  In  a  few  trenchant 
words  Mr.  Storrs  disposed  of  these  hypocritical  preten- 

tions : 

"  Every  Democratic  platform  has  a  peculiar,  distin- 
guishing mark,  by  which  it  can  everywhere  be  recognized. 
There  are  some  men  whose  business  is  advertised  in  their 
countenances.  We  can  always  recognize  a  quack  doctor, 
a  Jew  peddler,  and  a  Democratic  member  of  assembly  at 
first  sight.  Our  Democratic  friends  seem  to  derive  great 
consolation  from  the  reflection  that  they  are  conservative; 
but  that  is  not  what  ails  them.  '  A  great  many  good  people/ 
said  that  brilliant  and  witty  English  divine,  Sydney  Smith, 
'  think  they  are  pious,  when  they  are  only  bilious.  Many  a 
young  gentleman  turns  down  his  shirt  collar,  retires  from 
the  world  in  disgust,  reposes  himself  on  the  banks  of  some 
murmuring  stream,  and  thinks  that  he  is  a  misanthrope 
and  a  poet,  when  his  stomach  is  only  out  of  order.  Many 
a  man  thinks  he  is  inspired  when  he  is  simply  dyspeptic, 
and  many  a  worthy  old  gentleman  puts  his  hands  loftily 
under  his  coat  tails,  spreads  out  his  feet,  stands  with  his 
back  to  the  fire,  and  thinks  he  is  a  conservative  when  he  is 
only  a  flunkey/  We  have  a  large  number  of  these  illus- 
trious ghosts,  long  since  politically  entombed  by  the  peo- 
ple, whose  principle  business  seems  to  be  that  of  saving 
the  Union  !  Every  question  of  interest  to  them  seems 
bristling  with  danger.  They  have  any  number  of  medi- 
cines and  prescriptions  for  it  they  sit  up  with  it  nights, 
preserve  it  by  Union-saving  committees,  and  are  constantly 
on  the  ground  with  their  glue-pots  at  Mason  and  Dixon's 
line  to  stick  the  Union  together.  Whenever  any  question 
having  the  remotest  relation  to  the  institution  of  slavery 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  3d 

is  broached,  these  solemn  old  doctors  are  clamorous  in  their 
cries  of  danger  to  the  Union;  and  when,  at  the  ensuing 
session  of  Congress,  Kansas  shall  knock  at  the  door  of  the 
confederacy  and  demand  admission  as  a  free  state,  you 
will  see  them  running  for  their  medicaments,  and  their 
cordials,  their  paregoric  and  catnip,  their  laudanum  and 
pennyroyal ;  a  nigger  will  be  in  the  question,  and  the 
Union  in  danger! " 

His  conclusion  was  prophetic  : 

"  We  are  asked  where  we  are  coming  out.  That  is  not 
a  question  for  us  to  answer;  it  is  sufficient  for  us  to  go  in 
right,  and  trust  in  a  good  Providence  to  bring  us  out  right. 
When  a  man  goes  in  at  the  wrong  gate,  it  is  asking 
altogether  too  much  of  Providence  by  some  special  inter- 
position to  bring  him  out  at  the  right.  'I  will/  said  the 
Mussulman,  'unloose my  camel,  and  commit  him  to  God/ 
'First  hitch  your  camel,'  said  Mahomet,  'and  then  com- 
mit him  to  God/ 

"  The  Democratic  party  seems  to  have  a  holy  horror  of 
agitation.  What  other  or  better  way  is  there  for  a  free 
people  to  arrive  at  correct  conclusions  on  any  given  sub- 
ject, than  by  a  full  discussion  of  it?  Agitation  is  as  necces- 
ary  in  the  political  as  in  the  moral  or  physical  world.  The 
darkest  periods  in  this  world's  history  are  those  in  which 
free  discussion  was  prevented.  No  great  reform  has  ever 
yet  been  effected  without  it,  and  it  sometimes  requires 
the  earthquake  to  upheave  to  the  surface  the  ores  of  truth 
from  under  the  layers  of  ignorance  and  falsehood  which 
had  covered  them.  When  the  atmosphere  in  our  still  and 
sultry  summer  days  is  charged  with  malaria  and  pestilence, 
the  Almighty  sends  the  thunder-storm,  and  the  rain,  and 
the  whirlwind,  and  in  the  commotion  of  the  elements 
which  follows,  the  air  is  cleansed  and  purified,  and  we  can 
breathe  again  with  safety.  If  necessary,  by  such  means 


40  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

must  our  present  choked  and  pestilential  political  atmos- 
phere be  purified;  and  as  a  free  people,  wherever  there  is 
a  wrong  to  right,  or  a  great  truth  to  be  asserted  and 
advanced,  we  shall  claim  and  assert  the  right  of  the  freest 
discussion. 

"  The  days  of  democratic  misrule  are  numbered. 
From  the  waving  prairies  of  Iowa  to  the  coal  and  iron  fields 
of  Pennsylvania,  the  shouts  of  victory  are  sweeping  over 
the  land.  Indiana  and  Ohio  are  swelling  in  grand  chorus 
the  glad  song  of  triumph.  They  have  nobly  wheeled  into 
the  republican  line,  and  are  proudly  keeping  step  to  the 
music  of  freedom.  And  New  York  is  unworthy  of  her 
high  position  if  she  does  not  drive  Lecomptonism  from  her 
borders,  to  the  cypress  and  willow  swamps  of  Carolina. 
Upon  congressional  action  this  winter  depends  the  free- 
dom of  Kansas;  and  as  far  as  your  member  of  congress  is 
concerned,  his  past  record  is  clear,  consistent  and  unflinch- 
ing in  opposition  to  the  extension  of  slavery.  Put  in  nomi- 
nation by  the  soundest  men  in  your  county,  always  having 
been  true  to  the  principles  we  advocate,  honest,  faithful, 
capable,  he  will  receive  the  vote  of  every  good  Republican 
in  the  district  who  desires  the  success  of  the  republican 
doctrines.  A  political  party  is  something  more  than  a 
debating  society.  If  it  proposes  to  accomplish  any  practi- 
cal results,  it  must  have  organization,  and  its  candidates 
must  be  supported.  The  only  question  we,  as  Republicans, 
are  to  ask  is,  —  is  the  candidate  honest,  capable  and  faith- 
ful to  the  principles  of  the  party?  This  answered  in  the 
affirmative,  there  is  but  one  course  for  every  true  Republi- 
can, and  that  is  to  give  to  those  candidates  a  hearty  and 
vigorous  support.  A  democratic  convention  is  a  poor  place 
for  a  man  to  get  his  republicanism  indorsed;  'and  if  I 
desired  to  travel  on  the  strength  of  my  republicanism,  I 
should  not  go  to  a  democratic  convention  for  my  creden- 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  41 

tials.  The  victories  of  1856  were  but  beginnings,  in  the 
contest  to  follow.  Soon  are  we  to  reap  the  practical  results 
of  those  victories.  Let  every  man  feel  that  upon  himself 
personally  rests  the  responsibility.  There  is  yet  nerve  and 
muscle  enough  left  in  the  popular  arm  to  shatter  tjie  demo- 
cracy to  atoms;  and  when  at  last,  one  after  another,  those 
magnificent  Western  empires  shall  take  positions  in  the 
line  of  states,  joining  in  the  march  of  advancing  civiliza- 
tion, with  the  song  of  Freedom  on  their  lips,  and  its  bright 
star  glittering  full  upon  their  foreheads,  we  will  join  in 
that  grand  festival  in  which  the  North  and  the  South, 
the  East  and  the  West,  shall  strike  hands  in  a  common 
brotherhood  of  interests,  whose  high  purpose  it  shall  be 
to  extend  all  over  this  vast  continent  republican  doctrines, 
and  establish  upon  it,  for  all  time  to  come,  republican 
institutions/' 

Six  years  later,  while  the  ultimate  issue  of  the  war 
was  yet  undetermined,  Mr.  Storrs  delivered  in  Chicago 
a  Fourth  of  July  oration,  choosing  tor  his  subject  "Our 
National  Future."  He  spoke  substantially  as  follows : 

"Never  since  governments  existed  among  men  has  a 
mightier  question  been  presented,  nor  one  in  which  man- 
kind everywhere,  to-day  and  for  all  time  to  come,  have  a 
deeper  interest. 

"  The  purpose  of  a  nation  is  to  train  men  ;  that  nation 
which  trains  the  best  men  is  the  best  nation ;  and  that 
nation  which  gives  to  human  thought  its  largest  scope  and 
freest  range ;  which  without  shackles  or  hinderances  places 
in  every  man's  hands  the  implements  by  which  he  is  to 
work  out  his  own  success  ;  which  makes  of  each  individual 
the  architect  of  his  own  fortunes,  and  which  limits  the  range 
of  human  thought  and  human  enterprise,  only  within  the 
boundaries  of  absolute  right  and  justice  ;  —  that  nation 
trains  the  best  men  and  is  therefore  the  best  nation. 


42  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

"And  so,  embodied  in  this  question, — '  What  shall  be 
our  national  future?'  —  is  not  merely  whether  Jefferson 
Davis  shall  fail  or  succeed,  whether  the  boundaries  of  the 
United  States  of  America  shall  by  rebellious  bayonets  be 
crowded  from  the  gulf  to  the  very  gates  of  our  national  cap- 
ital ;  but  what  is  of  vastly  more  consequence  than  these 
even,  whether  the  experiment  of  self-government  so  mag- 
nificently inaugurated  upon  this  continent  shall  be  a  final 
success,  gladdening  the  hearts  of  good  men  everywhere 
through  all  the  ages  to  come,  or  whether  disastrous  defeat 
shall  overtake  its  champions,  and  it  be  pronounced  a  fail- 
ure for  evermore.  For  this  sublime  experiment  failing 
here  does  fail  for  evermore. 

"  Upon  the  triumph  of  the  national  arms  depends  not 
only  all  that  we  have  of  material  and  physical  consequence, 
but  disaster  to  the  mighty  cause  is  ruin  to  all  the  glorious 
promises  of  our  ideal  future  as  well.  It  has  been  defended 
as  never  cause  was  defended  before.  With  a  zeal  loftier 
and  holier  than  that  which  fired  the  hearts  of  the  followers 
of  the  hermit  to  rescue  from  the  profanation  of  infidel 
presence  the  tomb  of  the  Lord,  have  the  millions  of  this 
great  republic  lavished  blood  and  treasure  to  rescue  from 
the  profanation  of  rebel  hands  the  sacred  depository  of 
human  freedom.  We  fight  then  for  the  nation,  and  this 
includes  not  merely  the  territory  which  makes  up  its  phys- 
ical extent,  but  the  idea  which  is  embodied  in  it.  Our 
nation  is  not  simply  thirty- four  states,  bat  it  is  all  the  glory 
of  our  past,  all  the  hope  and  promise  of  the  future.  We 
are  the  trustees  of  this  continent  not  for  our  own  interests 
alone  but  for  mankind  everywhere.  We  have  been  fighting 
now  for  nearly  three  years  to  save  this  nation,  not  for  the 
value  of  its  cotton,  and  wheat,  and  corn,  and  manufact- 
ures, but  for  the  value  of  the  hope,  the  ideas,  the  aspira- 
tions, the  tendencies  which  it  embodies  and  of  which  it  is 


POLITICAL  OfcAfOUY.  43 

the  divinely  chosen  champion.  To-day  the  nation  for 
whose  salvation  we  are  fighting  is  the  embodied  spirit  of 
the  great  departed  ones  who  have  contributed  to  its  glory. 
Our  nation  is  the  wise  forecast  of  "Washington ;  the  sturdy 
patriotism  of  Adams  ;  the  earnest  philosophic  love  of  equal 
rights  of  Jefferson ;  the  clear  and  penetrating  vision  of 
Hamilton ;  the  fiery  zeal  of  Clay  ;  the  intellectual  grandeur 
of  Webster ;  the  indomitable  honesty  of  purpose  of  Jack- 
son. Every  great  man  or  woman  who  has  ever  lived  in  it 
and  contributed  to  its  growth  has  infused  the  ideas  which 
have  constituted  that  greatness  into  the  national  life,  and 
thus  has  each  one  become  a  part  of  the  nation. 

"  The  nation  which  we  now  fight  to  save  is  all  the  heroic 
endurance,  lofty  fortitude,  patient,  uncomplaining  patri- 
otism of  the  revolutionary  fathers,  the  broad  and  world 
embracing  enterprise,  the  marvelous  activity,  the  wonder- 
ful progressiveness  of  their  children,  knit  indissolubly 
together  by  that  divine  idea  of  self-government  which 
inspired  the  fathers  through  the  bloody  toils  of  its  creation 
and  which,  if  faithfully  adhered  to,  will  crown  with  tri- 
umphant glory  the  efforts  of  their  children  for  its  ever- 
lasting perpetuation. 

"  This  nation  then,  is,  so  to  speak,  the  spirit  of  repre- 
sentative government  made  manifest  in  the  flesh  of  its 
people.  The  grand  old  puritan  poet,  John  Milton,  who 
although  he  saw  not  with  earthly  vision,  did  see  with  the 
infinitely  clearer  perception  of  an  earnest,  holy  and  exalted 
vision,  said  :  ( Better  kill  a  man  than  a  good  book.  Who 
kills  a  man  kills  a  reasonable  creature,  God's  image  ;  but 
who  kills  a  good  bock  kills  the  image  of  God  as  it  were  in 
the  eye/  And  so  I  say  better  that  our  darlings  should  all 
perish  in  this  mighty  struggle  than  that  it  be  not  prose- 
cuted to  success.  They  are,  it  is  true,  God's  noblest 
images ;  but  who  kills  this  nation,  the  embodiment  of  all 


M  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

these  heaven-born  aspirations,  these  grand  ideas,  kills  the 
image  of  God  as  it  were  in  the  eye.  For  this  nation  is  the 
precious  life-blood  of  all  these  master  spirits  embalmed 
and  treasured  up  on  purpose  for  a  life  beyond  life.  We  are 
here  in  this  mighty  Northwest  from  every  portion  of  the 
country ;  from  every  quarter  of  the  globe.  The  spirit  of 
our  institutions,  now  imperiled,  and  which  we  now  fight 
to  save,  has  drawn  us  hither.  We  come  from  the  shadows 
of  the  old  South  Church,  baptized  as  it  has  been  in  the 
waters  of  a  religious  faith  ;  from  the  fields  of  Lexington 
and  Concord  where  the  first  shot  of  a  farmer  soldier  was 
fired,  a  shot  which  was  heard  all  around  the  globe  ;  from 
the  grand  old  Empire  state,  with  its  long  line  of  noble 
names  and  its  long  list  of  heroic  achievements,  with  its 
colossal  commerce,  the  fibers  of  which  intertwine  the  fate 
of  kingdoms  and  which  stands  like  the  angel  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse, one  foot  resting  on  the  sea  and  the  other  upon  the 
land,  and  mistress  of  both ;  from  the  old  Keystone,  glori- 
fied by  the  greatness  of  Penn  and  Franklin,  and  whose 
reddened  fields  at  Gettysburg  are  sanctified  by  the  blood  of 
heroes  dying  to  save  the  cause,  for  which  Penn  and  Frank- 
lin lived  and  died  before  them  ;  from  the  old  world,  too, 
with  its  noble  traditions  and  with  its  noble  names,  — are  we 
here  as  well.  All  these  memories,  all  these  exalted  deeds, 
have  we  brought  hither  with  us,  the  idea  of  free  govern- 
ment crystallizing  them  all  about.  These — these  thus  fused 
together,  thus  working  out  their  colossal  results  through 
us  on  these  fruitful  plans  —  are  our  nation's,  and  how  wor- 
thily that  nation  has  been  defended  by  her  northwestern 
sons  history  has  already  recorded. 

"I  speak  to  you  this  night  the  language  of  exultant  hope: 
hope  for  the  great  nation  we  love  so  justly  and  so  much, 
hope  for  our  country's  future  ;  hope  for  ourselves  and  for  our 
children.  And  even  now,  wandering  in  the  thin  uncertain 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  45 

light  which  I  take  to  be  the  promise  of  a  rapidly  approach- 
ing and  glorious  dawn  ; —  as  with  eager  eyes  we  watch  the 
moving  clouds  that  yet  overspread  the  sky; — as  we  ask  of  the 
watchmen  stationed  upon  the  watch-towers  and  citadels  of 
the  Union,  '  Watchman,  what  of  the  night  ? ' —  the  answer 
comes  back  to  us,  strong  and  clear,  and  full  of  assuring 
hope,  'All  is  well/  And  despite  our  early  disasters  and  de- 
feat, despite  the  long  and  wearisome  and  sometimes  almost 
disheartening  delay,  despite  the  gloom  that  has  overspread 
us — the  cause  of  the  Union,  the  cause  of  good  government 
everywhere,  upheld  by  the  strong  arms  of  the  stalwart  sons 
of  the  Northwest,  thank  God,  moves  gloriously  and  nobly 
on. 

"I  have  then  no  doubt  as  to  the  result  of  this  mighty 
contest — and  who  can  have  ?  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  the 
power  of  our  government  will  assert  itself  in  triumph.  I 
have  no  doubt  but  that  this,  the  most  wicked  rebellion 
which  has  ever  blackened  the  annals  of  history,  will  be 
ground  to  powder.  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  our  national 
integrity  will  be  preserved.  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  the 
union  of  these  states  will  be  restored  and  that  the  nation 
will  emerge  from  the  fiery  trial  through  which  it  has  passed 
brighter  and  better  and  stronger  than  it  has  ever  been 
before.  It  would  be  impossible,  however,  that  a  conflict 
mighty  as  that  from  which  we  are  now  I  trust  emerging, 
should  not  leave  its  deep  and  permanent  impress  upon  our 
future  national  character.  It  will  give  tone  to  our  politics, 
our  literature,  and  our  feelings  as  a  people  for  ages  to  come. 
A  nation  saved  at  such  a  tremendous  expenditure  of  life 
and  treasure,  whose  title  to  the  claims  of  nationality  is 
written  all  over  with  the  blood  of  heroes,  will  think  more 
highly  of  the  privileges  which  it  confers  than  it  ever  thought 
before.  Purchased  at  a  price  so  dear,  and  rescued  from 
destruction  at  a  cost  so  fearful,  it  will  be  valued  accord- 


46  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

ingly,  and  preserve  through  all  the  future  the  name  and 
privilege  of  an  American  citizen.  Knowing-  how  much 
they  have  cost,  they  will  be  prized  and  cherished  as  they 
have  always  deserved  to  be — but  as  they  have  never  been. 
And  so  it  will  come  to  pass,  that  for  the  times  to  come,  the 
people,  who  make  this  nation's  greatness  and  who  served  it 
in  its  trial,  will  watch  its  interests  with  jealous  eyes,  and 
guard  its  honor  with  an  earnest  and  a  lofty  zeal.  Then  it 
will  come  to  pass  that  the  mere  politician  shall  no  more 
trifle  with  its  glory,  trade  away  its  honor,  or  sacrifice  its 
interests  for  the  advancement  of  his  selfish  ends.  I  am  not 
claiming  that  scoundrelism  in  politics  will  cease  altogether 
at  the  close  of  the  war.  So  thoroughly  chronic  have 
scoundrelism  and  base  selfishness  become  with  some  of 
those  who  have  hitherto  disgraced  the  name  of  politics  by 
calling  themselves  politicians,  that  I  fear  the  disease  is 
altogether  ineradicable  in  them.  What  I  do  mean  to  say 
js  this  :  that  the  people  have  always  appreciated  the  great- 
ness of  our  nation  and  its  value  infinitely  better  than  poli- 
ticians as  a  class  have  done  ;  that  had  its  salvation  been 
entrusted  to  politicians  alone  it  would  have  miserably  per- 
ished the  first  year  of  the  rebellion  ;  that  the  loyal  hearts 
and  strong  arms  and  earnest  will  of  the  people  have  saved 
it,  and  that  in  the  future  they  will  watch  the  management 
of  our  national  affairs,  and  the  conduct  of  our  public  men, 
with  a  vigilance  so  keen  as  to  be  a  continuing  terror  to  the 
demagogue  and  the  mere  partisan.  Straightforward  hon- 
esty of  purpose  in  the  management  of  public  affairs  the 
people  of  this  country  have  always  appreciated  and  always 
rewarded.  Still  more  will  they  do  so  in  the  future.  I  do 
not  mean  to  say  but  that  swindlers  will  yet  ask  for  place, 
nor  that  scoundrels  will  not  occasionally  steal  into  office. 
Hereafter,  however,  this  will  be  the  exception.  Our  publio 
nien  will  be  inspired  by  higher  motives.  The  people  them- 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  47 

selves  will  realize  more  completely  than  they  have  ever 
done  before  the  value  of  this  Union.  There  will  be  greater 
care  exercised  in  framing  laws,  and  they  will  be  more 
scrupulously  obeyed. 

"  Not  less  marked  or  decided  in  character  will  be  the 
impress  which  will  be  left  upon  our  national  literature  and 
our  habits  of  thought.  The  meditations  of  the  philoso- 
pher, the  dreams  of  the  poet  the  fancies  of  the  roman- 
cer will  all,  years  and  years  hence,  be  colored  by  it  and  draw 
their  inspiration  from  it.  Literature,  whether  it  be  in  the 
tomes  of  the  philosopher  or  in  the  song  of  the  poet,  has 
always,  since  the  world  began,  drawn  its  holiest  inspiration 
and  its  clearest  expression  from  patriotic  feeliDgs  and 
impulses.  Since  the  blind  old  poet  sang  the  contests 
between  Hector  and  Achilles,  down  to  this  very  moment, 
that  literature  which  will  live — because  it  is  the  expression 
of  the  human  heart  wherever  it  may  be — is  that  which 
clothes  one's  country  with  all  the  beauties  which  the  lover 
sees  in  the  mistress  whom  he  adores,  and  which  ranks  the 
heroes  of  the  native  land  among  the  good  and  great  of  the 
world.  This  love  of  country  is  one  of  the  loftiest  virtues 
which  the  Almighty  has  planted  in  the  human  heart,  and 
so  treason  against  it  has  been  considered  lamong  the  most 
damning  sins.  The  history  of  the  world  teaches  us  that 
every  great  convulsion  like  that  through  which  we  are  now 
passing  has  given  new  life  and  stimulus  to  intellectual  exer- 
tion .  Such  wars  as  these  tear  up  old  formulas  by  the  roots 
and  scatter  the  fetters  which  have  bound  the  human  mind 
in  special  ruts  and  channels  to  the  winds.  The  chariot 
wheels  of  war  break  down  most  mercilessly  old  barriers ; 
and  the  thunder  of  battles,  and  the  bugle  blast,  summon 
from  the  deepest  recesses  of  the  human  heart  its  deepest 
feelings  and  emotions,  and  give  to  them  an  intensity  and 
vigor  of  expression  which  the  summer  days  of  peace  may 


48  POLITICAL   OKATORY. 

never  know.  Who  when  he  thinks  of  this  our  native  land, 
of  its  glorious  past,  so  brief  yet  so  marvelously  great,  with 
its  history  thronging  with  names  that  have  honored  human 
nature  and  added  to  the  dignity  of  our  common  manhood  ; 
of  its  mighty  physical  resources ;  of  its  vast  territorial 
extent ;  of  its  sublime  present  and  the  promise  of  its 
future,  but  that  feels  the  heart  throb  with  quicker  beat ; 
the  blood  run  with  swifter  course  ;  the  feeling  of  inspira- 
tion changing  our  every  nature  almost  and  lifting  us  far 
above  the  dull  level  of  our  ordinary  thought  ?  And  when 
added  to  that  history  of  the  past,  and  adding  new  luster  to 
the  promise  of  the  future  is  the  record  of  this  mighty  rebell- 
ion crushed  ;  who  can  doubt  but  that  the  literature  of 
our  country,  embodying  this  grand  and  ennobling  experi- 
ence, will  in  the  years  to  come  grow  broader,  higher,  and 
weightier, —  the  expression  of  a  nation  which  has  left 
behind  the  period  of  joyous  infancy,  and  attained  through 
fierce  tribulation  the  dignity  and  gravity  of  a  noble  man- 
hood ?  I  look  for  all  these  results,  and  many  more,  to  the 
great  crisis  which  our  nation  is  now  passing  through  ;  and 
I  look  to  its  future  with  confident  hope  and  expectations." 
President  Lincoln's  emancipation  proclamation  having 
been  denounced  by  the  copperhead  element  at  the  North 
as  unconstitutional,  Mr.  Storrs,  in  September,  1863, 
made  a  zealous  defense  of  it  in  a  speech  at  Sycamore, 
Illinois.  He  discussed  from  a  legal  standpoint  the 
leading  measures  of  the  administration,  including  the 
emancipation  proclamation,  the  military  arrests  of  Con- 
federate sympathizers  at  the  North,  the  conscription 
law,  and  the  use  of  negroes  as  soldiers.  He  argued  that 
the  constitution  having  given  Congress  power  to  declare 
war  and  suppress  insurrection,  and  constituted  the 
President  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy, 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  49 

the  President  had  the  right  to  use  all  the  means  at  his 
command  to  weaken  the  enemy  and  strengthen  the 
government. 

"  Who  then  is  to  judge  of  the  necessity?  Is  it  Lincoln 
or  Vallandigham?  Upon  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  de- 
volves the  especial  duty  to  protect  and  defend  the  consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  ;  as  the  head  of  our  forces,  on 
him  devolves  the  responsibility  of  so  using  them,  of  fur- 
nishing them  with  such  means,  of  so  augmenting  their 
strength,  of  so  weakening  the  hands  of  the  enemy  whom 
they  shall  be  compelled  to  meet,  that  they  may  be  success- 
ful in  overcoming  all  resistance  to  the  enforcement  of  the 
laws,  and  all  attempts  to  overthrow  the  government.  It 
will  require  no  argument  to  show  that  he  upon  whom  the 
responsibility  and  duty  of  accomplishing  a  particular  end 
is  devolved,  is  also  clothed  with  full  power  to  select  such 
means  as  to  him  may  seem  necessary  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  that  end.  Plain,  however,  as  this  proposition  is, 
we  are  not  left  without  authority.  The  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  as  well  as  many  of  the  most  eminent 
statesmen  of  our  earlier  history,  have  repeatedly  declared 
the  rule  in  substance  as  I  have  stated  it.  The  President, 
then,  must  have  the  right  to  determine  whether  the  liber- 
ation of  the  slaves  is  one  of  the  necessary  means  for  the 
successful  prosecution  of  the  war.  This  right,  established 
as  well  by  our  own  judicial  decisions  as  by  the  law  of 
nations,  must  also  be  regarded  as  a  part  of  the  constitution. 
Hence,  in  issuing  that  proclamation,  the  President  did  not 
suspend  the  constitution,  but  called  into  life  its  powers 
against  those  in  arms  seeking  to  overthrow  it. 

"  But  can  we  not  see  that  the  means  was  necessary  and 
proper?  Pollard,  writing  the  southern  view  of  the  rebell- 
ion, in  his  history  of  the  first  year  of  the  war,  concludes 


50  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

by  way  of  encouragement  to  rebels  by  saying  that  thus  far 
the  war  has  proved  that  the  system  of  slavery  has  been  an 
element  of  strength  to  the  South,  a  faithful  ally  to  their 
armies ;  the  slave  has  tilled  their  fields  while  his  master  has 
fought.  It  is  probable  that  Mr.  Pollard  is  quite  as  well 
advised  upon  that  subject  as  his  Copperhead  friends  in  the 
North,  and  understands  the  subject  quite  as  well  as  they.  If  it 
has,  then,  been  an  element  of  strength  to  the  South,  why  not 
weaken  or  altogether  destroy  that  element  of  their  strength? 
If  the  slave  has  tilled  while  the  master  has  fought,  tilling 
is  as  necessary  as  fighting,  and  the  slave  has  thereby  been 
made  as  efficient  an  enemy  to  the  government  as  his  mas- 
ter ;  and  if  we  have  a  right  to  kill  the  fighting  master,  we 
have  the  same  right  to  appropriate  the  services  of  the 
equally  efficient  tilling  slave.  If  the  slave  has  hitherto 
been  a  faithful  ally  to  the  South,  the  government  surely 
has  the  right  to  break,  if  possible,  the  alliance,  and  I  think 
to  enter  into  the  same  alliance  itself.  Even  a  Copperhead 
will  probably  not  deny  that  if  it  is  constitutional  for  the 
South  to  form  an  alliance  with  the  slave  for  the  purpose  of 
destroying  the  government,  it  is  equally  competent  for  the 
government  to  form  an  alliance  with  the  slave  for  the  pur- 
pose of  saving  itself." 

If,  as  the  Supreme  Court  decision  in  the  Dred  Scctt 
case  affirmed,  the  negroes  were  the  property  of  their 
masters,  Mr.  Storrs  contended  that  the  Federal  armies 
had  as  good  a  right  to  confiscate  them  as  any  other 
species  of  property. 

"It  must  be  remembered  in  this  connection  that  the 
government  has  the  right  to  demand  the  service  of  all  its 
subjects  for  its  own  preservation.  The  law  of  self-preser- 
vation, says  Vattel,  applies  as  well  to  nations  as  to  individ- 
uals. It  is  the  duty  of  the  government  to  protect  all  its 
citizens  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  rights  ;  it  is  equally  the 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  51 

duty  of  the  citizen  to  protect  the  government  when  its 
rights  or  existence  are  threatened  or  imperiled.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  but  that  the  government  could  enforce  the 
service  of  the  indentured  apprentice,  or  of  any  person 
bound  to  service  for  any  period  of  time.  If  it  have  this 
right — and  it  cannot  be  disputed  that  it  has — the  length  of 
serving  can  make  no  difference  with  its  exercise.  It  would 
have  the  right  to  draft  into  the  armies  men  bound  to  serv- 
ice for  ten  years  as  well  as  those  bound  for  five.  It  could, 
therefore,  annul  a  contract  requiring  service  for  life,  as 
well  as  for  a  certain  number  of  years.  In  other  words,  it 
could  declare  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  at  an  end  as 
well  as  the  relation  of  master  and  apprentice.  To  deny 
the  conclusion  would  be  to  say  that  the  government  is  at 
liberty  to  annul  contracts  between  its  own  citizens  when 
the  safety  of  the  state  demands  it  but  cannot  thus  affect 
its  enemies  under  a  like  emergency. 

"In  short,  if  slaves  are  to  be  regarded  as  property,  then 
the  right  of  the  government  to  take  them,  and  the  right  of 
the  commander-in-chief  to  order  them  to  be  taken,  are 
undisputed.  If  not  property,  then  the  South  has  no  right 
to  complain.  If  the  slave  is  not  the  property  of  the  mas- 
ter, then  the  master  has  no  right  to  his  services,  and  the 
commander-in-chief  must  clearly  have  the  right  to  prevent 
those  services  being  in  any  way  used  either  to  strengthen 
the  hands  of  the  rebellion  or  to  resist  the  armies  of  which 
the  commander-in-chief  is  the  head." 

On  the  subject  of  military  arrests,  it  was  claimed  by 
the  opponents  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  administration  that 
neither  the  President  nor  Congress  had  any  constitu- 
tional right  to  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  unless 
the  public  safety  required  it,  and  that  the  courts  were 
the  proper  judges  of  such  necessity. 


52  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

"  It  would  be  absurd/'  argued  Mr.  Storrs,  "  to  insist  that 
the  right  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  should  be  exercised  either  by  Congress  or  by  the 
President,  but  that  the  time  when  it  should  be  done  should 
be  submitted  to  the  judiciary.  Clearly  enough,  in  cloth- 
ing Congress  or  the  President  with  the  right  to  suspend  the 
privilege  of  the  writ  when  its  suspension  becomes  neces- 
sary for  the  preservation  of  the  public  safety,  the  right  of 
determining  the  existence  of  that  necessity  must  also  rest 
either  in  Congress  or  the  President.  To  say  that  the 
Supreme  Court  has  a  supervisory  control  over  the  exercise 
of  this  discretion  is  to  deny  its  existence  altogether  else- 
where ;  for  if,  when  the  President  exercises  his  discretion 
as  to  the  necessity,  the  courts  may  supervise  it,  then  it 
becomes  not  the  President's  discretion,  but  the  discretion 
of  the  court ;  and  the  constitution  would  be  made  to  read 
thus  :  *  The  writ  of  habeas  corpus  may  be  suspended  by 
Congress  or  the  President  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion, 
whenever  the  Supreme  Court  shall  deem  such  suspension 
necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the  public  safety.' 

"  It  is  alleged,  however,  that  the  arrests  made  by  the 
government  have  been  an  unconstitutional  interference 
with  the  rights  of  the  citizens,  and  that  no  such  arrests  can 
be  made  in  a  community  professedly  loyal  without  the 
process  of  law.  The  liberty  of  speech  and  the  freedom  of 
the  press,  we  are  told,  have  been  invaded  and  trampled 
upon  without  justification  or  necessity.  The  arrest  of 
Vallandigham  has  excited  more  discussion  than  any  other, 
and  upon  that  a  direct  issue  has  been  made  with  the  admin- 
istration. This  arrest  is  denounced  on  the  ground  that 
Vallandigham  was  not  connected  either  with  the  army  or 
navy ;  that  Ohio  is  a  loyal  state,  and  that  war  does  not  pre- 
vail there  ;  that  no  military  operations  were  being  actively 
carried  on  there ;  and  that  consequently  martial  law  could 


POLITICAL  OUATOKY.  53 

not  be  declared,  nor  could  the  laws  of  war  be  applied  to 
any  of  its  citizens  not  actively  engaged  in  the  military 
service.  But  it  is  not  true  that  the  operations  of  this  war 
are  confined  to  the  immediate  territory  in  which  battles  are 
fought  and  armies  are  moved.  There  is  war  as  well  in 
Ohio  as  in  Virginia.  Wherever  there  is  any  of  the  slightest 
opposition  to  the  government  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
war,  or  the  slightest  assistance  rendered  to  the  rebellion  in 
its  efforts  to  overthrow  the  government,  there  is  war.  In 
some  portions  of  the  country,  loyalty  dominates  and  con- 
trols society.  In  others,  rebellion  controls  and  dominates. 
There  is  no  place  so  dark  but  that  some  prayer  is  offered 
for  the  success  of  our  cause  ;  there  is  no  place  so  light  but 
that  lurking  treason  may  be  found. 

"  The  agencies  invoked  by  this  rebellion  to  its  support 
are  multiform.  The  means  which  it  uses  to  accomplish 
success  are  various.  The  rebellion  demands  not  only  sol- 
diers and  cannon,  and  the  ordinary  implements  of  war,  but 
sympathy  and  argument  to  support  its  cause  at  home,  to 
weaken  its  enemies,  and  to  give  it  dignity  and  support 
abroad.  Whoever  aids  the  rebellion  in  either  of  these  par- 
ticulars ;  whoever,  by  speech  or  writing,  contributes  to  the 
unity  of  its  people,  to  the  weakening  of  our  own,  to  the 
undermining  of  public  confidence  in  our  eventful  success, 
to  the  withholding  of  troops  from  the  service,  to  their 
desertion  when  once  engaged  in  the  service, — is  as  much  an 
enemy  to  the  government  and  as  much  at  war  with  it  as  he 
who  carries  arms  in  his  hands.  Wherever  such  a  condi- 
tion of  things  exists  there  is  insurrection  —  there  is  war. 
Whoever  engages  in  such  an  enterprise  is  an  insurgent. 
All  these  are  the  means  which  the  rebellion  calls  to  its  aid ; 
these  are  the  elements  which  it  enlists  in  its  behalf  ;  these 
are  the  instruments  by  means  of  which,  as  well  as  by 
armies,  it  wages  war  against  the  nation.  All  these  help* 


54  POLITICAL   OKATORY. 

combine  to  make  up  the  strength  and  power  of  the  insur- 
rection ;  and  we,  therefore,  while  at  war  with  the  insur- 
rection, are  at  war  with  every  part  of  it.  Our  purpose  is 
to  cripple  and  destroy  every  element  of  its  strength ;  to 
meet  and  overcome  every  means  which  it  uses  for  the 
furtherance  of  its  designs.  If  armies  are  arrayed  against 
the  government,  we  meet  and  crush  them.  If  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery  is  used  against  the  national  life,  we  meet 
and  crush  it.  If  seditious  speech  and  seditious  writing  are 
used  to  weaken  our  own  strength  and  encourage  and 
embolden  the  adversary,  we  meet  and  crush  that  as  well. 
All  these  agencies  are  parts  of  the  insurrection,  and  we  are 
at  war  with  every  part  of  it.  Whatever  strengthens  rebels 
weakens  us ;  whatever  encourages  and  emboldens  them 
dispirits  and  disheartens  us.  Wherever  any  of  these 
means  are  used  against  us,  there  is  insurrection ;  and 
wherever  there  is  insurrection  there  is  war.  It  would  be 
strange  indeed  if  rebels  should  have  greater  rights  against 
the  government  than  the  government  possesses  for  its  own 
defense. 

"  To  me  it  appears  that  the  right  of  the  military  power 
to  arrest  and  punish  the  citizen  depends  not  upon  the 
place  where  the  alleged  offense  is  committed,  but  upon 
the  nature  of  the  offense.  If  Vallandigham,  at  Dayton, 
discourages  enlistments,  encourages  desertions,  creates  dis- 
satisfaction and  excites  discontent  in  the  army,  I  can  see  no 
good  reason  why  he  has  not  made  himself  as  amenable  to 
military  trial  and  punishment  as  if  the  same  offense  had 
been  committed  at  Vicksburg  or  Chattanooga.  The  free- 
dom of  speech  and  of  the  press  are  indeed  the  highest 
privileges,  but  when  these  are  used  to  overthrow  the  very 
government  under  which  they  are  enjoyed,  then  they  cease 
to  be  rights,  but  are  wrongs  which  assume  the  largest  pro- 
portions and  are  fruitful  of  the  most  alarming  conse- 


POLITICAL    OKATORY.  55 

quences.  When  Vallandigham  roams  about  the  country, 
seeking  by  every  means  to  excite  popular  discontent ; 
to  impair  and  weaken  the  efficiency  of  our  arms  ;  to  dis- 
courage enlistments  ;  to  encourage  desertions ;  to  weaken 
ourselves  and  to  strengthen  the  rebellion,  he  is  simply  turn- 
ing against  the  government  the  very  privileges  which 
he  derives  from  the  government.  I  fail  to  see  that  Val- 
landigham possesses  any  greater  rights  to  stir  up  sedition 
among  us  here  than  he  would  have  to  work  to  the  same 
end  were  he  in  the  rebel  states.  If  Vallandigham  should, 
as  a  citizen  of  Virginia,  endeavor  to  weaken  our  strength 
by  speeches  and  by  publications,  no  one  would  doubt  the 
right  of  the  government  to  stop  his  speaking  whenever  it 
could  lay  its  hands  upon  him.  I  cannot  understand  how 
it  is  that  he  has  larger  privileges  in  Ohio  than  in  Virginia. 
I  fail  to  see  that  seditious  speeches  or  conduct  is  any  the 
less  an  offense  when  perpetrated  in  Ohio,  which  is  confess- 
edly loyal,  than  when  perpetrated  in  South  Carolina,  which 
is  confessedly  disloyal  ;  and  hence  I  say  that  in  spouting 
sedition  in  a  loyal  community,  where  converts  to  such 
sedition  may  be  made,  Vallandigham  is  as  guilty  in  fact 
and  inflicts  greater  damage  than  he  would  by  seditious  talk 
in  a  disloyal  community,  where  no  converts  were  to  be 
made.  The  military  power  being  employed  for  the  pre- 
servation of  the  nation,  and  Vallandigham  for  its  destruc- 
tion, they  met  as  inevitably  as  the  army  of  Pemberton  met 
that  of  Grant  at  Vicksburg,  and  with  like  results.  If  Mr. 
Vallandigham  and  his  followers  do  not  like  the  use  of  mil- 
itary force  against  them,  they  had  better  not  array  them- 
selves against  military  force  ;  and  whenever  they  choose  to 
do  so,  they  may  be  prepared  to  take  the  consequences. 

"  An  opposition  to  the  government  as  bitter  and  malig- 
nant as  that  which  proceeds  from  any  other  source  is  made 
on  the  ground  of  the  employment  of  negroes  as  soldiers. 


56  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

I  am  unable  to  see  why  it  is  not  infinitely  better  that  the 
negro  should  fight  for,  rather  than  against  us.  There  cer- 
tainly can  be  no  legal  objection  to  it,  for,  if  we  have  the 
right  to  deprive  the  master  of  the  services  of  the  negro, 
we  clearly  have  as  much  right  to  require  the  services  of 
the  negro  in  our  own  behalf  as  we  have  to  command  the 
services  of  white  men.  I  am  not  prepared  to  admit  that 
the  negro  is  relieved  from  his  responsibilities  to  aid  the 
government  because  of  his  color.  I  know  of  no  provision 
in  the  constitution  which  declares  of  what  color  our  armies 
shall  be  constituted.  There  being,  then,  no  legal  objection, 
it  becomes  a  question  of  policy  merely,  and  to  the  past 
history  of  the  nation  I  appeal  for  the  determination  of 
that  question.  When  I  remember  that  the  first  blood  shed 
in  the  revolution  was  the  blood  of  a  negro,  Crispus  Attucks ; 
that  at  Bunker  Hill  negroes  fought  side  by  side  with  white 
men,  and  that  among  the  heroes  of  that  day  is  Peter 
Salem,  the  negro ;  that  in  Massachusetts,  negroes,  bond 
and  free,  were  enlisted  in  the  continental  armies ;  that 
Connecticut  passed  laws  for  that  very  purpose,  giving  as  the 
reward  of  such  service,  freedom  to  the  slave  ;  that  Ehode 
Island  sent  its  negro  brigade,  which  fought  under  the  eyes 
of  Washington  and  Lafayette,  and  always  with  credit ;  that 
more  negroes  were  in  the  service  of  the  country,  enlisted 
from  the  New  England  states,  than  there  were  white  sol- 
diers from  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  ;  that  the  legis- 
latures of  Maryland,  New  York,  Pennsylvania  and  Vir- 
ginia authorized  the  enlistment  of  negroes,  bond  and  free, 
with  the  approbation  of  every  general  in  our  armies  ;  that 
by  direction  of  Congress  Henry  Laurens  went  to  Georgia 
and  South  Carolina,  with  all  the  aid  which  Washington 
could  render  him,  to  enlist  negroes  there  in  the  service  of 
the  country,  —  a  step  made  necessary  because  neither 
Georgia  nor  South  Carolina  had  contributed  their  quota  of 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  57 

troops  ;  that  of  the  army  of  Washington  at  Monmonth 
755  were  negroes;  that  during  our  last  war  with  Great 
Britain  the  services  of  the  negro  were  again  invoked  ;  that 
one-fourth  of  Perry's  force  at  Lake  Erie  were  negroes  ; 
that  Jackson  enlisted  them  at  New  Orleans,  promised  them 
thejr  freedom  for  their  services,  and  faithfully  kept  his 
promise  good  ;  and  when,  added  to  all  these  teachings  of 
our  past  history,  I  remember  the  services  of  the  slaves  at 
Milliken's  Bend,  Port  Hudson,  and  Fort  Wagner,  I  prefer 
to  base  my  judgment  as  to  the  expediency  and  policy  of 
this  measure  rather  upon  the  records  of  our  history,  the 
teachings  of  our  experience,  and  the  united  testimony  of 
the  great  men  and  the  great  events  of  our  national  career,  • 
than  upon  the  carping  criticisms  of  the  mere  politicians, 
or  the  elegant  conservatism  of  Governor  Seymour  and  '  his 
friends/  Washington,  Jefferson,  Adams,  Laurens,  Greene, 
Lafayette,  Hamilton,  Jay,  Knox,  and  Henry,  of  our  revo- 
lutionary history, —  Jackson,  Perry,  Scott,  and  Van  Rens- 
selaer,  in  our  more  modern  history, —  judged  it  wise  to  use 
the  negro  as  a  soldier,  and  acted  upon  that  judgment. 
Seymour,  Vallandigham,  Voorhees  and  Singleton  think 
otherwise.  I  have  no  difficulty  in  making  choice  as  to 
whom  I  shall  follow.  I  have  already  made  my  choice.  I 
prefer  the  precedents  of  our  early  history,  and  the  teach- 
ings of  the  wise  and  great  men  who  have  made  that  his- 
tory glorious,  to  the  sophisms  of  Seymour  and  his  associates. 
I  shall  act  upon  that  preference  in  the  future  ;  and  I  doubt 
not  that  the  great  mass  of  the  people  will  also." 

The  course  of  President  Johnson  to  wards  the  South- 
ern states,  which  resulted  in  his  impeachment,  was  dis- 
cussed by  Mr.  Storrs  in  an  exhaustive  speech  at  Ot- 
tawa, 111.,  in  September,  1866.  The  Chicago  Tribune 
reported  it  in  full,  and  editorially  characterized  it  as 


58  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

"  Websterian  in  logical  reasoning,  in  purity  of  diction, 
and  in  force  and  clearness  of  statement."  He  began 
by  saying : 

"  The  political  issues  involved  in  the  pending  elections 
are  but  a  continuation  of  those  that  have  been  before  us 
for  the  past  five  years.  During  all  that  period  of  time  the 
Kepublican  party  has  urged  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  war 
against  a  rebellion  in  arms.  The  political  issues  were  those 
which  naturally  grew  out  of  the  war.  They  involved  ques- 
tions of  policy  as  to  the  manner  in  which  it  should  be  con- 
ducted and  the  purpose  for  which  it  should  be  waged. 
The  continued  and  triumphant  supremacy  of  the  Republi- 
can party  was  evidence  of  the  resolute  will  of  the  people 
to  suppress  rebellion,  to  crush  out  treason,  to  punish 
traitors,  and  so  thoroughly  preserve  our  national  integrity 
as  to. remove  all  the  causes  which  had  given  rise  to  the  war. 
We  were  at  war  with  the  rebellion  in  its  every  part ;  at 
war  as  well  with  the  ideas  to  carry  out  which  rebellion  was 
inaugurated  as  with  the  armies  which  were  marshaled  for 
the  support  of  those  ideas, —  for  the  armies  of  the  rebell- 
ion were  but  the  physical  expression  of  the  political  prin- 
ciples to  sustain  which  these  armies  were  organized. 
Every  battle  fought  by  Southern  armies,  every  shot  fired  by 
Southern  traitors,  was  in  behalf  of  the  right  of  secession, 
the  political  power  of  slavery,  and  the  Calhoun  doctrine 
of  state  sovereignity.  In  contending  with  Southern  armies 
we  contended  with  these  political  principles.  When  their 
armies  were  defeated  the  principles  for  which  those  armies 
fought  were  defeated  also.  When  their  armies  surrendered 
to  ours,  they  surrendered  not  only  the  guns  with  which 
they  fought,  but  the  principles  for  which  they  fought. 
For  if,  after  fighting  traitors  in  the  field  and  vanquishing 
them,  we  fail  to  vanquish  also  the  treason  for  which  they 
fought,  the  war  has  been  a  failure  infinitely  more  ignomini- 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  59 

ons  and  disgraceful  than  it  would  have  been  had  the  Demo- 
cratic platform  of  18G4  been  true  when  it  was  written. 
The  question  now  is,  as  it  then  was,  Is  the  war  a  failure? 

"If  after  the  sacrifice  of  three  hundred  thousand  lives, 
and  an  expenditure  of  almost  countless  millions  of  money 
in  conquering  the  military  power  of  the  rebellion,  the  only 
result  has  been  to  restore  at  once  subjugated  rebels  to  a 
place  in  our  national  councils,  to  a  voice  in  national  legis- 
lation without  adequate  guarantees  that  the  political  here- 
sies which  gave  life  to  treason,  and  inspired  its  exertion, 
shall  not  flame  out  anew  into  the  horrors  of  civil  war  ;  then 
is  the  war  a  failure  indeed,  then  treason  meets  with  no 
punishment,  and  patriotism  has  no  rewards.  For,  refine 
and  reason  upon  it  as  we  may,  the  question  of  the  hour  is, 
Shall  the  fruits  of  Union  victories  be  gathered  and  secured?" 

Scouting  the  idea  that  this  could  be  done  by  an  un- 
conditional restoration  of  yet  disloyal  states  to  a  share 
in  the  national  councils,  he  traced  the  course  of  Johnson 
point  by  point,  showing  that  each  of  his  executive 
acts  "in  behalf  of  treason  and  against  loyalty"  had 
been  in  violation  of  the  constitution. 

"He  found  these  states  without  governors,  and  he  ap- 
pointed governors.  He  found  them  without  a  constitu- 
ency entitled  to  vote,  and  he  straightway  created  a  constit- 
uency. He  found  them  without  political  power,  and  he 
clothed  them  with  it,  and  so  it  was  that  the  strange  specta- 
cle was  presented  of  rebels  again  exercising  political  power. 
The  result  of  the  elections  for  delegates  was  snch  as  might 
well  have  been  expected.  The  conventions  were  as  much 
rebel  conventions  as  those  which  the  fortunes  of  war  had 
just  dissolved.  With  the  advice  and  under  the  direction  of 
Andrew  Johnson,  constitutions  were  framed  and  declared 
to  be  the  law  of  the  land.  These  constitutions  were  as 


60  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

much  the  work  of  the  President,  as  were  the  governors 
themselves  the  creatures  of  his  authority. 

"  The  new  Moses  seems  to  be  laboring  under  the  im- 
pression that  the  exercise  of  political  privileges  and  the 
enjoyment  of  political  rights  rest  solely  and  altogether 
upon  his  decision.  He  says  that  the  people  of  the  seceded 
states  are  all  loyal,  and  that  they  have  organized  state  gov- 
ernments, and  elected  members  of  congress  who  are  at 
once  entitled  to  admission.  I,  for  one,  desire  better  evi- 
dence of  a  man's  loyalty  than  Andrew  Johnson's  indorse- 
ment of  it.  The  President  cannot  change  facts  by  asser- 
tions. He  cannot  make  a  treasonable  people  loyal  by  de- 
claring that  they  are  loyal,  any  more  than  he  can  swing 
around  the  circle,  and  by  hammering  at  the  other  end 
make  the  great  loyal  North  disloyal  by  drunken  and  menda- 
cious charges  that  they  are  traitors. " 

He  argued  that  Congress  alone  had  the  power  to 
determine  upon  what  conditons  the  rebel  states  should 
be  re-admitted  to  the  Union,  and  placed  the  issue  before 
his  audience  in  his  wonted  terse  and  pithy  form : 

"The  policy  of  Andrew  Johnson  and  his  supporters  is 
the  immediate  restoration  of  southern  states  to  power  irre- 
spective of  their  present  loyalty  or  disloyalty,  without 
guarantees  for  the  future,  and  without  punishment  for  the 
past.  The  policy  of  Congress  is  to  restore  southern  people 
and  states  to  their  original  relations  with  the  Union  upon 
their  adopting  the  constitutional  amendment  agreed  upon 
by  Congress.  Nothing  more,  nothing  less,  is  required  of 
the  South  than  this." 

The  negro,  he  contended,  must  be  protected  in  all 
his  rights  of  citizenship,  and  this  ought  to  be  guaran- 
teed by  legislation  in  every  rebel  state  as  a  condition 
of  their  restoration  to  the  political  privileges  they  had 
forfeited. 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  61 

"  The  Republican  platform  of  1864  declares  of  slavery, 
that  *  justice  and  the  national  safety  demand  its  utter  and 
complete  extirpation  from  the  soil  of  the  Republic.  But  it 
is  proposed  by  the  author  of  that  resolution  and  by  the 
party  in  whose  employ  he  now  is,  and  whose  addresses, 
manifestoes  and  declarations  he  writes,  that  the  main 
structure  of  the  institution  may  be  destroyed,  but  that  its 
scaffolding  and  supports  shall  still  be  left  to  offend  the 
eye  and  disfigure  the  landscape.  The  work  of  extirpation 
is  not  completed  until  every  statute  which  recognized  it, 
every  benefit  to  the  master  which  grew  out  of  it,  every 
constitutional  provision  which  secured  and  guarded  it, 
every  political  power  or  privilege  which  resulted  from  it, 
is  rooted  out  with  slavery  itself.  For  all  these  were  but 
parts  of  the  system,  the  limbs,  the  heart  of  slavery,  and 
they  are  all  foredoomed  to  '  extirpation  from  the  soil  of  the 
Republic.'  This  great  crime  which,  like  a  poisonous  plant, 
grew  upon  the  soil  of  the  Republic,  carefully  watched  and 
tended  by  zealous  friends,  grew  with  ominous  rapidity, 
until  its  far-reaching  branches,  lengthening  day  by  day, 
threw  their  shadows  all  over  the  land;  its  roots  struck 
deep  and  widespreading  into  earth;  from  these  the  parent 
trunk  sent  forth  its  supports,  and  the  odors  of  its  blossom- 
ings lulled  to  sleep  the  patriotic  vigilance  of  a  nation,  and 
numbed  its  conscience.  The  war  waged  against  this  gigantic 
crime  by  the  Republican  party  is  not  ended  until  the  poison- 
ous thing  is  utterly  and  completely  extirpated.  So  long  as 
a  root,  or  limb,  or  fiber  remains,  our  work  is  incomplete." 

He  ridiculed  Johnson's  idea  that  the  rebel  states 
had  a  right  to  a  voice  and  vote  in  proposing  amend- 
ments to  the  constitution.  This  claim  for  the  rebel 
states  was  put  forward  on  the  ground  that  as  these 
states  had  no  legal  right  to  secede,  therefore  they  had 
never  been  out  of  the  Union. 


62  POLITICAL  OKATORY. 

' ( A  state  cannot  secede,  in  the  same  sense  that  a  man 
cannot  steal.  It  cannot  legally,  although  it  may  in  fact 
secede,  and  a  man  cannot  legally,  but  the  records  of  our 
courts  show  that  many  men  do  in  fact  steal.  And  so  a 
state  like  Virginia  is  in  the  Union,  in  the  same  sense  that 
the  convicted  thief  is  in  Illinois.  He  is  in  Illinois,  but  he 
is  also  in  the  penitentiary.  While  there  he  has  his  rights, 
but  they  are  the  rights  of  a  thief  and  not  of  a  law-abiding 
citizen;  and  so  Virginia,  a  rebel  state,  has  its  rights,  but 
they  are  the  rights  of  a  rebel  state,  and  not  of  a  loyal  one. 
The  thief  must  serve  his  time  out  'before  he  can  be 
restored  to  his  proper  practical  relations*  with  the  people 
whose  laws  he  has  offended, — and  so  must  Virginia.  The 
thief  so  long  as  he  sees  no  chance  for  a  pardon,  or  for  an 
escape,  ( accepts  the  situation '  for  the  most  excellent  of 
reasons, — he  can't  help  it.  Virginia  accepts  the  situation 
for  the  same  reason.  But  because  the  thief  gave  up  the 
stolen  property  when  the  officers  of  the  law  by  force  took 
it  away  from  him,  he  does  not  thereby  escape  punishment 
for  the  crime,  although,  in  the  language  of  Andrew  John- 
son, the  larceny  was  utterly  '  null  and  void/  any  more 
than  Virginia  does  when  she  surrenders  the  forts  and  arms 
that  she  has  stolen,  because  she  was  compelled  by  force  to 
do  so.  Nor  when  the  thief  is  brought  to  trial  is  he  per- 
mitted to  have  a  voice  or  a  vote  in  proposing  what  his 
punishment  shall  be,  nor  in  'ratifying  the  same.'  Nor 
will  Virginia,  while  she  is  on  trial  at  the  bar  of  the  country, 
be  permitted  to  say  upon  what  condition  her  guilt  shall  be 
washed  away  and  what  securities  shall  be  demanded  for 
the  future. 

"If,  however,  when  Andrew  Johnson  was  occupying  the 
bench,  a  thief  should  be  brought  to  trial  before  him,  he 
would  insist  that  it  was  a  clear  case  of  taxation  without 
representation;  that  the  criminal  was  taxed  to  pay  the 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  63 

expenses  of  the  jury  while  he  was  not  represented  upon  it, 
and  that  therefore  twelve  thieves  should  at  once  sit  with 
the  twelve  honest  men  in  proposing  measures  of  punish- 
ment and  security,  and  thus  taxation  and  representation 
would  go  hand  in  hand;  there  would  be  harmony  and  fra- 
ternal feeling;  thirty-six  stars  on  the  flag,  a  copy  of  the 
constitution  at  every  railroad  crossing,  and  a  magic  circle 
in  every  family. 

"Slavery,  we  are  told,  is  abolished,  and  the  negro  is 
free.  But  until  the  seed  is  so  thoroughly  destroyed  that 
it  may  never  again  grow  into  life  and  be  re-established, 
until  the  negro  is  not  only  free,  but  the  enjoyment  of  that 
freedom  is  secured  to  him  against  all  invasion  in  the  future, 
slavery  is  not  abolished,  nor  is  the  negro  free,  in  the  full 
measure  which  the  nation  requires. 

"  Like  the  fabled  monster  Briareus,  slavery  has  an  hun- 
dred arms,  and  like  Proteus,  may  assume  almost  innumer- 
able forms.  AVith  every  hand  it  works  mischief,  and  in 
every  form  that  it  assumes  it  is  dangerous.  Every  law 
which  deprives  the  negro  of  the  enjoyment  of  any  of  the 
rights  of  a  citizen,  or  interferes  with  him  in  the  enjoyment 
of  any  one  of  those  rights,  is  the  handiwork  of  slavery,  is 
one  of  the  forms  which  it  assumes. 

"Until  the  negro  is  free,  not  only  in  the  ownership  of 
himself,  but  free  to  work  for  whom  he  pleases,  free  to  have 
a  voice  in  the  making  of  his  own  contracts,  free  in  the 
enjoyment  of  the  proceeds  of  his  own  labor,  free  to  invoke 
all  the  agencies  of  the  law  for  the  redress  of  his  wrongs  or 
the  defense  or  enforcement  of  his  rights,  free  to  educate 
himself  and  his  children,  free  to  think  as  he  pleases  and  to 
speak  what  he  thinks,  free  as  you  and  I  are  free,  and  cer- 
tain that  no  power  shall  deprive  him  of  it,  the  magnificent 
promise,  made  in  our  platform  in  1864,  that  slavery  should  be 
extirpated  from  t{ie  gojl  o.f  the  Republic,  remains  unfulfilled. 


64  POLITICAL  ORATORY 

"  If  we  fall  short  in  either  of  these  things,  and  while 
we  have  relieved  the  slave  from  one  form  of  bondage, 
suffer  his  old  master  to  reduce  him  to  another,  we  are  false 
to  our  high  pledges.  The  slave  and  all  the  world  may 
then  well  say  of  us  — 

"And  be  these  juggling  fiends  no  more  believ'd 
That  palter  with  us  in  a  double  sense  ; 
That  keep  the  word  of  promise  to  our  ear 
And  break  it  to  our  hope.' 

"Slavery  is  not  yet  abolished.  The  negro  is  not  yet 
free.  For,  if  to-day  we  adopt  the  policy  of  Andrew  John- 
son, to-morrow  every  rebellious  state  has  it  within  its 
power  to  annul  all  its  previous  action,  and  by  such  hamper- 
ing legislation  as  their  ingenuity  would  readily  devise, 
reduce  the  negro  to  a  condition  of  slavery  in  fact,  what- 
ever it  might  be  in  name." 

If  the  Southern  States  desired  in  good  faith  to  accept 
the  results  of  the  war,  he  saw  no  reason  why  they  should 
not  u  prove  their  faith  by  their  works,"  by  putting  on 
record  their  ratification  of  the  constitutional  amend- 
ments, and  taking  legislative  measures  to  enforce  them. 
He  concluded  with  a  scathing  review  of  Johnson's 
record,  especially  denouncing  the  part  he  took  in  con- 
nection with  the  massacre  of  Union  men  at  New 
Orleans. 

"He  declared  that  treason  was  a  crime,  and  should  be 
punished,  while  hardly  a  loyal  man  fills  an  office  in  the 
South,  and  the  punishment  of  rebels  is  by  taking  them  into 
his  confidence.  He  declared  that  they  should  be  impover- 
ished, and  fills  the  promise  by  placing  it  within  the  power  of 
unrepentant  rebels  to  persecute  Union  men  and  drive  them 
from  their  midst.  He  declared  that  treason  was  a  crime, 
and  should  be  so  treated,  and  proves  the  sincerity  of  his 
professions,  by  aiding  with  his  sympathy,  and.  with  his  power 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  65 

as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army,  the  traitors  and  con- 
victed murderers  of  New  Orleans  in  the  cold-blooded  slaugh- 
ter of  faithful  and  long-tried  Union  men,  while  in  conven- 
tion peaceably  assembled.  He  declared  that  in  the  work 
of  reconstruction  none  but  loyal  men  should  participate, 
while  in  the  reorganization  of  these  state  governments  loyal 
men  have  no  share,  and  in  the  administration  of  their 
affairs  are  premitted  to  take  no  part.  Elevated  to  power 
by  the  Republican  party,  he  spurns  the  counsels  of  its 
leaders,  and  defiantly  seeks  to  defeat  the  measures  adopted 
by  the  representatives  of  that  party  and  of  the  people.  Not 
satisfied  with  this,  be  seeks  its  overthrow  by  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  new  party  in  the  country,  which  derives  all  its 
strength  from  rebels  at  the  South  and  Copperheads  at 
the  North,  and  which  he  essays  to  build  up  by  the  distribu- 
tions of  official  patronage,  by  removing  from  office,  with- 
out cause,  tried  and  trusted  Union  men,  and  putting  in 
their  places  pliant  tools  of  his  own,  or  those  who  have 
always  been  bitterly  hostile  to  the  party  by  whom  he  was 
elected  and  to  the  principles  which  it  has  always  espoused. 
He  has  deserted  all  his  old  friends,  who  were  the  friends  of 
the  Union  and  the  country,  for  new  ones  who  have  always 
been  the  enemies  of  both. 

"The  man  guilty  of  all  these  crimes  is  to-day  President 
of  the  United  States.  This  is  his  policy.  With  the  blood 
of  the  slaughtered  Union  men  of  New  Orleans  upon  his 
hands,  he  makes  the  tour  of  the  loyal  North,  insults  its 
sentiment,  defies  its  representatives,  and  threatens  more 
violence  in  the  future. 

"He  knows  the  people  but  poorly.  They  are  as 
resolutely  resolved  to  save  this  Union  to-day  as  they  ever 
have  been.  That  purpose,  rest  assured,  will  be  achieved, 
and  whoever  stands  in  the  way  of  its  accomplishment  will 
be  crushed  finer  than  powder," 


IV. 
THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1868. 

BLAINE'S  STATE  THE  SCENE  OF  MR.  STORKS'  EARLIEST  AND 
LATEST  TRIUMPHS  AS  A  POLITICAL  ORATOR  —  ARRAIGN- 
MENT OF  THE  DEMOCRATIC  PARTY  —  DEFENSE  OF  THE 
CONSTITUTIONAL  AMENDMENTS. 

THE  foregoing  speeches  of  Mr.  Storrs  have  been 
deemed  worthy  of  preservation  for  their  historical 
interest,  as  presenting  in  a  lucid  and  forcible  manner  the 
issues  which  absorbed  public  attention  in  this  country 
thirty  years  ago.  It  was  not  until  the  Presidential 
campaign  of  1868,  that  Mr.  Storrs  achieved  a  national 
reputation  as  a  political  orator.  By  a  singular  coinci- 
dence, the  State  where  he  first  won  the  distinction  as  a 
stump  speaker  which  continued  to  grow  and  brighten 
to  the  close  of  his  life,  was  also  the  scene  of  his  last 
oratorical  triumphs.  The  fame  he  won  by  his  speeches 
in  Maine  during  the  campaign  of  1868,  brought  him 
prominently  before  the  country,  and  inspired  that 
demand  for  his  services  in  other  states,  through  subse- 
quent campaigns,  which  never  ceased  until  his  death  ; 
and  it  was  in  Maine,  standing  on  the  edge  of  Lake 
Maranacook  by  the  side  of  James  G.  Elaine,  that  he 
made  his  crowning  effort  in  the  campaign  of  1884,  the 
last  in  which  he  was  destined  to  take  a  part.  He  had 
gone  to  Maine  in  1868  for  a  summer  vacation,  and 
letters  from  the  West  to  prominent  Republicans  there 
spoke  of  him  in  such  glowing  terms,  that  he  was  sought 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  67 

out  and  invited  to  speak  at  Portland  along  with  Hon. 
George  S.  Boutwell,  of  Massachusetts.  The  Maine  and 
Boston  papers  were  enthusiastic  in  their  praise  of  his 
eloquence,  and  on  his  return  to  Chicago  he  was  request- 
ed to  address  meetings  in  this  city  and  other  parts  of 
the  State.  The  following  speech  was  delivered  at  St. 
Charles,  Illinois,  in  the  fall  of  that  year: 

"In  I860  the  Democratic  party  forfeited  public  confi- 
dence and  was  driven  from  power.  In  1864  it  demanded 
that  it  should  receive  from  the  people  the  confidence 
it  had  forfeited  four  years  before,  and  asked  to  be  restored 
to  power.  The  nation  answered  this  demand,  and  with 
overwhelming  majorities  declared  that  it  was  not  entitled 
to  public  confidence,  and  that  the  reasons  which  had 
induced  the  people  to  drive  it  from  power  in  1860  had  been 
intensified  and  multiplied.  Two  years  later,  in  1866,  they 
again  went  before  the  people,  their  claims  were  re-examined 
and,  with  increased  emphasis,  rejected.  To-day,  the  same 
party  again  appeals  to  the  country  and  again  asks  that  the 
interests  of  the  nation  be  intrusted  to  its  keeping.  It  is  our 
business  to  inquire:  first,  whether  the  three  verdicts  given 
against  the  Democratic  party  were  righteous  verdicts  ;  and 
second,  if  they  were,  what  they  have  done  since  then  to 
restore  confidence  in  them.  That  the  verdict  rendered 
against  the  Democratic  party  in  1860  was  a  righteous  one, 
I  will  not  attempt  to  prove  to  you  here.  That  party 
sought  to  fasten  the  institution  of  slavery  upon  free  terri- 
tories. It  sought  to  protect  it  there  by  all  the  powers  of 
the  general  government.  It  appealed  to  the  people  for  aid 
in  this  wicked  purpose,  and  the  people  righteously  refused 
it.  Nor  need  I  spend  much  time  in  demonstrating  that 
the  verdict  of  1864  was  warranted  by  all  the  facts  in  the 
.case.  It  then  declared  the  war  an  experiment,  and  the 
experiment  a  failure;  demanded  that  hostilities  should 


68  POLFTICAL  OKATOEY. 

cease,  which  would  have  resulted  in  the  immediate  recog- 
nition of  the  independence  of  the  southern  confederacy  by 
every  foreign  power.  The  righteousness  of  the  popular 
verdict  rendered  in  1866  was  equally  clear  to  us.  The 
rebellion  having  been  crushed  by  force  of  arms,  the 
Democratic  party  insisted  that  neither  rebel  state  nor 
rebel  citizen  had  lost  anything  by  his  crime;  that  he  should 
be  permitted  to  dictate  the  terms  of  his  re-admission  to  the 
Union  which  he  had  sought  to  destroy,  and  should  be  made 
the  custodian  of  the  interests  of  a  nation  which  he  had 
wickedly  sought  to  overthrow. 

"Assuredly,  then,  the  Democratic  party  cannot  suc- 
cessfully ask  us  to  restore  them  to  power,  on  the  ground 
that  our  former  judgments  against  it  have  been  erroneous, 
nor  can  it  ask  us  to  reverse  the  decisions  delivered  by  the 
people  in  1860,  1864  and  1866.  Their  claims  for  support 
must  rest,  not  upon  the  ground  that  they  were  innocent  of 
the  crimes  of  which  the  people  convicted  them  at  those 
great  public  trials,  but  that,  confessing  their  guilt,  they 
have  atoned  for  it  by  public  services  since  rendered,  of  a 
character  sufficiently  important  to  entitle  them  to  a  full 
and  complete  pardon  from  the  people  against  whom  they 
had  offended.  And  hence  it  is  that  the  demand  made  by 
the  Democratic  party  to-day  for  power  cannot  be  enter- 
tained, unless  it  has  either  an  entirely  new  set  of  leaders, 
or  different  views  upon  the  questions  which  have  divided 
the  country  for  the  past  eight  years,  from  those  which  it 
has  held  for  the  past  eight  years,  or  unless  all  those  ques- 
tions have  passed  out  of  political  controversy,  and  have 
been  replaced  by  entirely  new  issues. 

tf  That  the  leaders  of  the  Democratic  party  are  the  same 
they  have  been  for  the  past  eight  years,  every  one  knows. 
Seymour  and  Vallandigham,  Pendleton  and  Belmont, 
Henry  Clay  Dean  and  Brick  Pomeroy  were  leaders  in  the 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  69' 

Democratic  party  in  1864  and  they  are  leaders  in  the  same 
party  in  1868.  Wade  Hampton  and  Toombs,  Fort  Pillow 
Forrest  and  Beauregard,  were  leaders  in  the  Democratic 
party  in  1860;  their  operations  North  were  suspended  by 
four  years  of  war,  at  the  close  of  which  they  promptly  fill 
their  old  positions  as  leaders  in  the  Democratic  party  of  the 
nation. 

"Not  only  has  there  been  no  change  of  leaders,  but  there 
has  been  no  abandonment  of  the  position  which  the  party 
has  held  on  political  issues.  They  denounce  coercion  as 
unconstitutional.  We  have  yet  to  learn  that  their  opinions 
have  met  with  any  change  on  that  point.  They  opposed 
every  measure  adopted  by  the  administration  for  the  prose- 
cution of  the  war.  They  denounced  the  first  call  for  troops 
as  unauthorized.  They  denounced  the  proclamation  of 
emancipation  as  unconstitutional.  They  opposed  the 
means  adopted  by  Congress  for  raising  money,  as  unconsti- 
tutional. They  claimed  that  the  conscription  law  was 
revolutionary,  unconstitutional  and  void,  and  sought  to  pre- 
vent its  execution  by  force.  They  declared  the  war  a  fail- 
ure. We  have  yet  to  learn  that  they  do  not  hold  these 
opinions  still.  These  were  questions  which  we  discussed 
up  to  the  close  of  the  war.  With  reference  to  them,  the 
position  of  the  Democratic  party  is  unchanged,  and  our 
verdict  must  be  the  same  that  it  has  always  been. 

"  It  is  true  that  they  have  assumed  a  somewhat  different 
form,  but  in  substance  there  has  been  no  change.  They 
are  the  same  to-day  as  when  the  rebellion  began  and  closed. 
In  his  last  message  to  Congress,  James  Buchanan,  the  last 
Democratic  President,  declared  that  the  government  had 
no  authority  to  coerce  a  state.  The  limit  of  national 
authority,  he  said,  was  to  assist  the  judges  and  the 
marshals,  and  they  having  all  resigned  in  the  seceding 
states,  there  was  nobody  to  assist  and  consequently  nothing 


70  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

could  be  done.  James  Buchanan  died  a  Democrat.  The 
Attorney-General,  Jeremiah  S.  Black,  wrote  a  long  opinion 
holding  the  same  doctrine.  Horatio  Seymour  declared 
that  an  attempt  at  coercion  was  no  less  revolutionary  than 
secession.  This,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  was  the 
position  of  what  then  remained  of  the  Democratic  party  as 
a  political  organization.  But  the  people  believed  that  the 
government  could  coerce  a  state,  and  the  attempt  was 
made.  Three  years  afterwards,  and  in  18G4,  the  Demo- 
cratic party  declared  the  attempt  a  failure.  In  other 
words  they  said:  ( We  told  in  1861  you  could  not  coerce  a 
state.  You  have  tried  and  you  have  failed.  Your  failure 
proves  that  you  cannot  coerce  those  states/  Up  to  that 
time  certainly  the  issues  were  the  same.  But  the  surrender 
of  Lee  having  demonstrated  that  a  rebellious  state  and  its 
people  could  be  coerced  as  a  matter  of  fact,  because  they 
had  been  and  were  coerced,  the  same  question  again' arose 
when  the  nation  proposed  to  reconstruct  and  rehabilitate 
those  states.  Having  defeated  the  rebellion  in  arms,  over- 
turned their  entire  political  system,  and  conquered  the 
people  of  the  rebellious  states,  we  insisted  in  1866  that 
they  must  recognize  the  validity  of  the  national  debt  con- 
tracted to  suppress  the  rebellion,  that  the  freedmen  should 
be  entitled  to  citizenship,  and  that  slavery,  to  perpetuate 
which  the  rebellion  was  inaugurated,  must  be  abolished. 
We  insisted  in  1866  that  upon  the  recognition  of  these 
ideas,  and  'their  incorporation  into  the  organic  law, 
depended  a  return  to  them  of  the  full  enjoyment  of  politi- 
cal privileges  within  the  Union.  Our  right  to  make  these 
demands  was  denied.  The  Democratic  party  claimed  that 
those  rebellious  states,  immediately  at  the  close  of  the  war, 
occupied  a  position  of  entire  equality  with  the  loyal  states, 
and  that  the  government  had  no  right  to  coerce  them  into 
a  delivery  into  the  hands  of  the  nation  of  the  results  and 


POLITICAL  OtlATOIlt.  ?i 

fruits  of  the  victories  which  the  nation  had  achieved  over 
them. 

"  The  people,  however,  decided,  in  1806,  that  they  had 
the  right  to  dictate  terras  to  a  conquered  rebellion,  and 
demand  that  their  representatives  in  Congress  should  exer- 
cise that  right.  Refusing  to  accept  the  constitutional 
amendments  proffered  by  Congress,  that  body  undertook 
by  a  series  of  measures  called  the  reconstruction  acts,  to 
enforce  substantially  those  terms  upon  the  South;  in  other 
words,  to  coerce  them  into  yielding  up  to  the  nation  the 
fruits  of  the  victories  which  it  had  achieved.  As  a  result 
of  these  measures,  what  has  been  known  as  the  Fourteenth 
Constitutional  Amendment  has  been  adopted.  Under 
these  measures  eight  of  the  seceding  states  have  been  re- 
admitted, they  having  paid  the  price  of  their  admission  by 
the  ratification  of  this  amendment  to  the  constitution. 
This,  indeed,  looked  like  coercion.  It  was  as  complete  a 
coercion  of  rebel  political  ideas  and  principles  as  the  over- 
throw of  Lee's  army,  and  its  forced  surrender  was  a  coercion 
of  the  military  power  of  the  southern  states. 

"True  to  the  old  instincts — preferring  that  the  old 
issues  should  still  be  kept  alive  and  the  old  questions  still 
be  agitated — the  Democratic  party  met  in  national  con- 
vention at  the  city  of  New  York,  on  the  4th  day  of  July, 
18G8,  and  solemnly  declared  that  the  reconstruction  meas- 
ures of  Congress  were  usurpations  —  revolutionary,  uncon- 
stitutional and  void.  If  that  declaration  be  true,  and  such 
be  the  opinion  of  the  people,  as  a  matter  of  course  the 
fourteenth  amendment  falls  with  those  measures  of  which 
it  is  the  offspring.  The  state  governments  organized 
under  it  also  fall,  and  it  will  indeed  be  true  that  the 
general  government  has  no  power  to  coerce  a  state  in 
rebellion  against  its  authority.  It  may  conquer  by  mere 
force  its  armies,  but  all  such  measures  as  it  may  see  fit  to 


adopt  to  secure  the  results  of  its  victories  will  be  '  usurpa- 
tions—  revolutionary,  unconstitutional  and  void.'  Whether 
this  nation  has  a  right  to  coerce  a  state  in  rebellion  against 
its  authority  into  obedience  to  its  authority,  and  whether 
to  render  that  coercion  effectual  it  may  demand  guarantees 
for  future  peace,  is  the  distinct  question  put  to  the  people 
by  the  Democratic  party  in  its  platform.  It  is  the  same 
question  which  we  have  thrice  settled  at  the  ballot  box 
within  the  last  eight  years.  The  position  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  on  that  question  is  unchanged.  And  so  I 
confidently  believe  the  position  of  the  people  on  that  ques- 
tion is  unchanged  and  unchangeabl 

"  The  Democratic  platform  not  only  denounces  the 
reconstruction  measures  in  the  general  language  which  I 
have  quoted,  but  it  takes  direct  issue  with  almost  every 
provision  of  the  fourteenth  amendment.  It  denies  to  the 
freedmen  one  of  the  highest  attributes  of  citizenship,  the 
right  of  suffrage,  and  demands  that  the  exercise  of  that 
right  shall  be  regulated  by  the  citizens  of  rebellious  states, 
who  were  the  nation's  enemies  against  the  freedmen,  who 
were  the  nation's  friends.  It  demands  that  the  national 
debt  created  to  crush  the  rebellion  shall  be  paid  in  an  irre- 
deemable promise,  thus  destroying  its  validity  declared  in 
the  fourteenth  amendment,  and  adding  to  the  crime  of 
repudiation  all  the  calamities  of  a  worthless  currency,  or 
the  imposition  of  onerous  and  unendurable  taxation.  It 
demands  the  taxation  of  the  Government  bonds,  none  of 
which  being  held  in  the  rebellious  states,  would  devolve 
additional  burdens  upon  the  loyal  people  of  the  country. 
It  demands  the  immediate  restoration  of  all  the  states,  of 
course  without  condition.  Such  a  declaration  of  principles 
opens  every  question  which  the  war  settled.  It  renders 
our  victories  valueless  ;  for  if  the  seceding  states  are  to 
return  to  the  Union  in  precisely  the  same  position  they 


POLITIC  AT,   ORATORY.  t3 

left  it  —  which  would  be  the  case  were  tne  reconstruction 
measures  of  Congress  declared  by  the  voice  of  the  people 
revolutionary,  unconstitutional  and  void  —  the  war  is  a 
failure.  Five  hundred  thousand  lives  have  been  sacrificed, 
and  three  thousand  millions  of  dollars  expended  in  vain. 

"  And  yet  with  such  a  platform  of  principles,  and  with 
candidates  upon  it  who  propose  to  carry  it  out  by  force,  we 
are  constantly  told  that  all  discussion  of  the  war  and  its 
results  is  the  discussion  of  a  dead  issue.  They  entreat  us 
to  'let  bygones  be  bygones,'  and  to  'let  the  dead  past  bury 
its  dead/  With  a  platform  that  would  upset  all  that  the 
war  has  accomplished,  we  are  asked  to  say  nothing  about 
the  war.  With  a  platform  which  thrusts  into  our  very 
faces  every  issue  that  the  war  settled,  and  demands  that 
even  by  violence  those  issues  must  be  resettled,  and  in 
another  way,  which  demands  that  we  shall  repudiate  every 
vote  we  have  given  for  the  last  eight  years,  we  are  asked  to 
forget  the  past.  Wade  Hampton,  with  the  smoke  of  burn- 
ing loyal  homes  still  clinging  to  his  garments,  whose  hands 
are  red  with  the  blood  of  our  brothers  and  our  sons,  and 
Forrest,  fresh  from  the  atrocities  of  Fort  Pillow,  demanded 
that  the  states  which  they  carried  into  and  aided  in  rebel- 
lion, shall  suffer  nothing  for  their  great  crime,  and 
beseechingly  entreat  us  to  let  bygones  be  bygones.  If  a 
forcible  attempt  is  made  to  despoil  you  of  your  property 
and  destroy  your  homes,  you  can  hardly  regard  such  an 
attempt  as  a  bygone,  until  it  is  adequately  protected  against 
all  future  attacks  of  the  same  character.  But  it  would  be 
quite  in  keeping  with  this  Democratic  platform  for  the 
robber  and  the  incendiary  yet  hovering  around  your  home, 
kept  at  a  respectful  distance  by  barricades  which  you  had 
erected,  and  watchmen  whom  you  had  placed  about  it  for 
its  protection,  to  denounce  those  barricades  and  watchmen 
as  revolutionary,  unconstitutional  and  void,  and  whenever 


74  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

you  referred  to  the  old  robberies  and  burnings,  to  entreat 
you  to  let  bygones  be  bygones.  I  apprehend  that,  coming 
from  the  old  robber  and  the  old  incendiary,  you  would  re- 
gard a  proposition  to  remove  your  watchmen  and  barricades 
as  a  renewal  of%  an  attempt  to  despoil  your  property  and 
burn  your  home,  and  as,  substantially,  the  same  old  ques- 
tion. Such  a  barricade,  guarding  for  the  future  the  results 
of  our  victories,  protecting  us  against  rebellion  in  the  future, 
is  the  fourteenth  constitutional  amendment.  It  is  demand- 
ed, by  those  who  sought  to  destroy  the  nation  that  that 
barrier  be  removed.  It  is  the  same  old  question.  I  make 
the  same  old  answer  —  No. 

"  The  Democratic  party  having  done  nothing  to  win 
back  your  confidence,  has  the  Republican  party  been  guilty 
of  any  acts  which  would  justify  the  withdrawal  of  public 
confidence  from  it?  Mr.  Pendleton,  in  his  speech  at 
Springfield,  arraigns  the  Republican  party  before  the  peo- 
ple, and  proposes  that  it  be  tried  and  convicted  on  its 
history.  By  its  history  we  are  quite  willing  that  it  should 
be  tried.  By  that  test  let  it  stand  or  fall.  If  within  the 
comparatively  short  period  of  its  existence  it  has  achieved 
nothing  for  the  cause  of  humanity  and  the  interests  of  good 
government;  if  under  its  sway  freedom  has  made  no  prog- 
ress, and  the  nation  itself  no  advancement,  it  deserves  to 
forfeit  public  confidence;  it  deserves  removal  from  power. 

"In  detailing  the  history  of  the  Republican  party,  Mr. 
Pendleton  in  his  speech  at  Springfield,  said :  '  The  Repub- 
lican party,  on  the  other  hand,  is  not  of  long  duration.  It 
was  founded  in  1856,  upon  the  ruins  of  the  old  Whig  party. 
But  all  who  were  sectional,  all  who  were  fanatical,  all  who 
hated  the  constitution,  all  who  hated  the  Union,  all  who 
were  dissatisfied,  went  into  the  Republican  organization, 
and  they  carried  with  them  many  dissatisfied  Democrats. 
I  need  not  tell  you  that  the  infancy  of  Ihis  party  was  marked 


POLITICAL   OUATOUY.  75 

by  the  bloody  troubles  in  Kansas,  and  by  the  invasion 
of  Virginia  by  John  Brown  of  Ossawatomie.  I  need  not 
tell  you  that  its  advent  to  power  in  18GO  was  marked  by 
the  destruction  of  the  harmony  which  up  to  that  time  had 
existed  among  the  people;  that  it  was  marked  by  an  attempt 
at  dissolution  of  the  ties  which  bound  our  states  together; 
that  it  was  marked  by  the  sorrows  and  miseries  of  the 
greatest  civil  war  of  which  history  has  given  us  any  record. 
But  these  parties  —  the  Republican  party  and  Democratic 
party  —  to-day  stand  where  they  stood  in  the  beginning, 
carrying  out  to  their  logical  conclusions  the  principles  upon 
which  they  were  founded.' 

"IHsnotof  decisive  consequence  in  determining  the 
merits  of  the  Republican  party  from  its  history  to  know 
how  its  infancy  was  marked,  nor  by  what  events  its  advent 
was  marked.  It  is  true  that  its  infancy  was  marked  by  the 
bloody  troubles  in  Kansas;  but  it  is  equally  true  that  those 
bloody  marks  upon  the  infancy  of  the  Republican  party,  and 
upon  the  history  of  the  nation,  were  all  made  by  Demo- 
cratic hands,  and  all  bear  the  impress  of  Democratic 
fingers.  The  question  is  not  so  much  what  were  the  marks, 
but  who  made  the  marks?  The  bloody  troubles  in  Kansas 
were  the  outgrovvtli  of  a  wicked  attempt  of  the  Democratic 
party  and  a  Democratic  administration  to  force  upon  that 
territory,  against  the  will  of  its  people,  by  violence  and 
fraud  and  bloodshed,  the  blithing  curse  of  slavery.  It  is 
equally  true  that  during  the  infancy  of  the  Republican 
party,  John  Brown  with  thirteen  men  invaded  Virginia. 
For  an  attempt  to  liberate  the  slave  he  was  tried  and  hung. 
That  the  Republican  party  was  responsible  for  John  Brown's 
raid  Mr.  Pendleton  dare  not  assert.  The  men  who  hung 
John  Brown  were  Democrats.  The  body  of  the  old  hero 
was  hardly  cold  in  its  grave  before  his  executioners  had 
kindled  the  flames  of  civil  war,  had  been  guilty  of  the  vilest 


ij-g  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

treason  against  the  nation,  and  are  now  demanding  the 
overthrow  of  those  laws  enacted  to  prevent  another  rebell- 
ion. The  memory  of  John  Brown's  executioners  will  be 
handed  to  infamy.  But  though  '  John  Brown's  body  lies 
moldering  in  the  grave,  his  soul  goes  marching  on/ 

"The  advent  of  the  Eepublican  party  to  power  was, 
Mr.  Pendleton  informs  us,  marked  'by  the  destruction  of 
the  harmony  which  up  to  that  time  had  existed  among  the 
people.'  It  was  a  curious  kind  of  harmony  which  existed 
during  the  administration  of  Pierce  and  Buchanan. 
'  Order/  it  was  once  said,  '  reigns  in  Warsaw/  The  Poles 
had  all  been  slaughtered.  It  was  the  order  which  despotism 
brings  about,  by  the  destruction  of  those  who  chafe  under 
it.  It  was  the  quiet  of  death.  The  Poles  all  massacred,  order 
reigned  in  Warsaw.  The  voice  of  freedom  having  been 
hushed,  and  her  slightest  utterance  choked,  harmony  pre- 
vailed, for  the  slave-driver  had  everything  his  own  way. 
We  are  also  told  that  the  advent  of  the  Republican  party 
was  marked  'by  an  attempt  at  dissolution  of  the  ties  which 
bound  our  states  together/  That  is  true,  but  the  truth  of 
the  statement  is  the  everlasting  disgrace  of  the  Democratic 
party.  The  attempt  at  dissolution  was  made  by  the 
Democratic  party,  for  no  other  reason  than  that  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  elected  President  of  the  United  States.  It 
was  an  attempt  of  measureless  wickedness  and  causelessness 
which  Mr.  Pendleton  did  not  attempt  to  prevent,  but 
rather  urged  on  by  saying  to  those  actively  engaged  in  it, 
'I  would  mark  their  departure  with  tokens  of  affection;  I 
would  bid  them  adieu  so  tenderly  that  their  hearts  would 
be  touched  by  the  recollection  of  it/  For  the  wickedness 
of  this  attempt  and  for  the  attempt  itself,  Mr.  Pendleton 
and  the  Democratic  party  are  alone  responsible.  They 
made  no  effort  to  prevent  the  attempt  being  made;  they  put 
forth  no  exertion  to  prevent  it  succeeding.  The  infamy 


POLITICAL  OKATORY.  77 

of  this  attempt  rests  alone  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party.  The  humiliations  and  disasters  of  its  defeat 
should  be  borne  by  them  alone,  and  the  glory  of  its  over- 
throw belongs  alone  to  the  great  loyal  people,  who  proved 
themselves  as  able  to  meet  and  overcome  the  Democratic 
party  in  the  field,  as  at  the  ballot  box.  Mr.  Pendleton 
also  graciously  assures  the  liberty-loving  men  of  this  coun- 
try that  their  advent  to  power  was  '  marked  by  the  sorrows 
and  miseries  of  the  greatest  civil  war  of  which  history  has 
given  us  any  record.'  This  is  true  again,  and  it  is  also  true 
that  for  that  war,  and  all  the  sorrows  and  miseries  which  it 
entailed,  the  Democratic  party  is  alone  responsible.  These 
sorrows  and  miseries  are  indeed  marked  deeply  upon  the 
history  of  the  country,  and  their  guilty  authors  will  not 
soon  be  forgotten.  The  responsibility  for  that  gigantic 
crime,  and  the  griefs  resulting  from  it,  as  a  part  of  the  bur- 
dens which  the  Democratic  party  must  carry  down  with  it 
through  all  history,  is  engraved  upon  the  heart  of  every 
mother  whose  boy  died  in  the  great  cause;  it  is  witnessed 
by  the  tear  of  every  widowed  wife  whose  husband  fell  from 
Southern  bullets,  or  perished  ultimately  in  a  Southern 
prison-pen.  There  is  not  a  desolate  home  in  all  the  land, 
nor  a  deserted  fireside,  made  so  by  this  wicked  rebellion, 
that  does  not  bear  eloquent  testimony  that  all  those  marks 
of  desolating  grief  were  made  by  Democratic  hands.  And 
all  the  countless  graves  of  the  slain  heroes  of  the  republic 
are  marks  of  misery  and  suffering  made  by  Democratic 
rebels,  not  only  on  the  peaceful  advent  of  a  great  party  to 
power,  but  upon  the  pages  of  our  country's  and  the  world's 
history.  All  these  'marks'  which  Mr.  Pendleton  flourish- 
ingly parcels,  were  made  by  the  Democratic  party.  When 
the  burglar  can  safely  denounce  the  merchant,  because  his 
advent  to  a  prosperous  business  was  marked  by  a  robbery 
of  his  substance j  when  the  incendiary  can  denounce  hig 


78  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

victim  because  his  advent  to  his  new  home  was  marked  by 
its  conflagration,  then  let  the  Democratic  party,  North  and 
South,  denounce  the  Republicans  because  their  advent  to 
power  was  marked  by  the  miseries  of  a  war  which  Demo- 
crats began  by  an  attempt  at  dissolution,  in  which  they 
alone  engaged.  We  gladly  accept  Mr.  Pendleton's  challenge, 
and  will  test  the  claims  of  the  Republicans  by  what  the 
Republican  party  has  achieved. 

'It  entered  the  field  in  1856,  a  protest  of  the  best 
thought,  the  highest  culture  and  the  soundest  he.art  of  the 
country,  against  the  aggressions  of  the  slave  power.  On 
behalf  of  the  dignity  of  free  labor,  free  speech  and  free 
thought,  it  appealed  to  the  highest  motives,  and  its  appeal 
was  nobly  answered. 

"  Its  first  great  achievement,  resulting  from  the  elec- 
tion of  Abraham  Lincoln,  was  the  rescue  of  our  vast  west- 
ern territories  from  the  grasp  of  slavery,  and  from  its 
blighting  effects  upon  the  interests  and  dignity  of  labor, 
and  the  dedication  of  those  territories,  now  prosperous 
states,  to  free  labor,  and  to  free  men.  Against  this  great 
achievement,  up  to  this  time  the  grandest  event  in  Ameri- 
can history,  the  Democratic  party  rebelled.  Having  saved 
the  territories  to  freedom,  the  Republican  party  entered  on 
the  second  stage  of  its  career,  and  its  second  achievement, 
wrought  out  with  more  than  one-half  the  Democratic 
party  of  the  nation  in  open  arms  against  it,  and  the  other 
half  in  covert  opposition,  was  the  salvation  of  this  nation", 
for  all  peoples  and  to  all  ages,  as  the  sacred  custodian  of 
the  priceless  treasure  of  free  government.  Its  great  career 
was  not  ended.  Having  crushed  the  rebellion,  it  deter- 
mined to  rid  the  country  of  the  evil  out  of  which  rebellion 
grew,  and  the  nation  of  the  foulest  stain  resting  upon  its 
fair  fame.  It  entered  at  once  upon  the  third  stage  of  its 
career^  and  for  its  third  achievement  in  the  interests  of 


POLITICAL   ORATOUY.  79 

humanity,  for  the  cause  of  good  government  and  in  behalf 
of  the  downtrodden  and  the  oppressed,  declared  that 
'  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude,  except  as  a  pun- 
ishment for  crime,  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly 
convicted,  shall  exist  within  the  United  States,  or  any 
place  subject  to  their  jurisdiction.'  And  yet  its  work  is 
not  finished.  It  is  now  closing  the  fourth  period  of  its 
history,  and  preparing  finally  to  consummate  its  fourth 
achievement.  • 

"The  salvation  of  the  nation,  wrought  out  through  the 
perils  of  the  mightiest  rebellion  which  history  records,  in- 
volved the  building  of  great  fleets,  the  raising  and  equip- 
ping of  gigantic  armies.  For  these  purposes  a  great 
national  debt  was  incurred.  And  that  debt  the  Republican 
party  proposes  to  pay. 

"It  entered  upon  the  great  contest  with  four  millions 
of  slaves  in  the  rebellious  states,  who,  .during  the  entire 
period  of  the  war,  were  our  friends,  and  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  whom  fought  for  us.  It  found  those  slaves  at 
the  close  of  the  war  free  men.  It  proposes  to  make  them 
citizens,  and  protect  them  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  their 
rights  as  citizens  Having  crushed  the  rebellion,  it  pro- 
poses to  protect  the  nation  against  its  recurrence,  and  to 
withhold  from  those  who  sought  the  destruction  of  the 
national  life  any  share  in  the  control  of  our  national  des- 
tinies until  they  have  furnished  us  the  surest  evidences 
that  the  national  interests  can  be  safely  intrusted  to  their 
hands. 

"Thus  having  carried  the  nation  safely  through  the 
perils  of  the  rebellion,  it  proposes  to  gather  the  fruits  of 
all  its  triumphs,  and  imbed  them  in  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States,  secure  for  all  the  future  in  the  fourteenth 
amendment  to  the  constitution,  wherein  are  secured 
national  honor,  the  freedom  of  the  slave,  and  national 


80  POLITICAL  OKATOKY. 

security  for  the  future,  as  a  fitting  consummation  of  the 
great  work  of  the  Republican  party,  for  the  people  and  for 
the  world.  The  same  opposition  which  it  has  'encountered 
at  every  period  of  its  progress  it  now  encounters.  The 
Democratic  party,  which  opposed  it  in  its  efforts  to  give 
the  territories  to  freedom,  which  rebelled  when  the  effort 
proved  a  success,  which  opposed  it  in  its  great  effort  to 
preserve  the  national  integrity,  which  opposed  it  when  it 
gave  freedom,'  opposes  it  now,  when  it  seeks  to  embody  all 
these  results  in  the  organic  law,  and  threatens  to  tear 
down  the  sanctuary  in  which  they  are  enshrined,  and 
denounces  the  great  measure  by  which  these  results  have 
all  been  gathered  together  as  usurpations  revolutionary, 
unconstitutional  and  void. 

"  These  are  the  great  events  in  the  history  of  the  Repub- 
lican party.  Considering  the  mighty  consequence  of  what 
it  has  accomplished,  it  would  seem  that  it  has  crowded  a 
thousand  years  of  history  into  eight  short  years  of  time. 
It  found  our  territories  in  the  clutch  of  slavery;  it  broke 
its  hold  and  dedicated  them  to  freedom.  It  found  the 
nation  beset  by  spies  and  encompassed  by  treason,  trem- 
bling upon  the  very  brink  of  ruin;  it  rescued  it  from  dan- 
ger. It  saved  the  only  free  government  on  earth.  It 
found  four  millions  of  human  beings  slaves;  it  gave  them 
freedom.  It  has  lifted  four  millions  of  chattels  out  of  the 
night  and  barbarism  of  slavery  into  the  clear  pure  air  of 
American  citizenship.  It  has  for  the  first  time  made 
American  citizenship  a  living  reality  —  has  made  citizen- 
ship broader  than  the  mere  boundaries  of  a  state;  has  made 
it  in  its  privileges  coextensive  with  the  whole  nation.  It 
has  vindicated  the  national  faith,  and  if  the  people  permit, 
will  secure  to  all  the  future  domestic  prosperity  and  tran- 
quility,  honor  and  respect,  abroad.  It  has  vindicated  the 
capacity  of  men  for  self  government,  and  a  united  Italy 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  81 

and  a  united  Germany  follow  closely  upon  and  result  from 
the  example  of  a  united  nationality  iu  this  great  republic. 
All  these  mighty  results,  the  most  cheering  for  our  hopes 
of  humanity,  has  the  Republican  party  accomplished  in 
eight  short  years.  Test  it  by  its  history.  Judge  it  by  what 
has  been  done,  and  when  you  have  found  that  all  the 
parties  of  which  history  gives  us  any  record  can  produce 
nothing  to  compare  with  these  results,  you  will  decide  as 
you  have  decided,  that  whatever  mistakes  of  detail  it  may 
have  committed  it  is  still  entitled  to  the  largest  measure 
of  our  confidence;  that  we  are  prepared  to  say  to  it,  '  Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servant/ 

"  Besides  the  general  charges  which  Mr.  Pendleton 
makes  against  the  Republican  party,  and  to  which  I  have 
already  alluded, he  makes  several  specific  allegations  against 
it,  the  most  important  of  which  seems  to  relate  to  the  con- 
stitutional amendments.  Mr.  Pendleton  professes  an 
almost  idolatrous  admiration  of  the  constitution,  insists 
that  our  fathers  who  made  it  were  wise  men,  and  he  said 
in  his  speech  at  Springfield,  speaking  of  the  constitution: 
'  I  charge  upon  you  who  are  Democrats  ...  do  not 
seek  to  amend  it,  do  not  seek  to  change  it.'  We  yield 
nothing  to  Mr.  Pendleton  in  admiration  of  the  constitu- 
tion. We  appreciate  as  fully  as  he  does  the  wisdom  of  our 
fathers  who  made  it.  But  we  admire  it  not  alone  for  its 
e  checks  and  balances/  of  which  he  has  so  much  to  say. 
We  do  not  regard  it  as  a  mere  political  'teeter.'  We 
admire  it  among  other  reasons  because  it  was  made  by  the 
people  of  the  United  States  in  order  to  form  a  more  per- 
fect union,  establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquility, 
provide  for  the  common  defense,  promote  the  general  wel- 
fare, and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and 
our  posterity.'  We  admire  it  for  the  ample  shield  of  pro- 
tection which  it  throws  about  the  citizen  in  time  of  peace. 


82  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

We  admire  it  for  the  tremendous  armory  of  power  which  it 
furnishes  the  nation  in  time  of  war.  We  think  its  framers 
were  wise  men,  and  they  exhibited  their  wisdom  by  embody- 
ing in  the  constitution  provisions  for  its  amendment. 

"  This  nervous  anxiety  about  amendments  to  the  con- 
stitution is  a  new  thing  with  the  Democratic  party.  When, 
in  1800,  Mr.  Chittenden,  for  the  purpose  of  coaxing  the 
South  back  into  the  Union  which  they  had  determined  to 
destroy,  proposed  amendments  to  the  constitution  dedicat- 
ing vast  tracts  of  free  territory  to  slavery,  and  pledging  it 
the  protection  of  the  nation,  even  against  the  will  of  the 
people  of  those  territories,  no  Democrat  opposed  such  an 
amendment.  They  not  only  did  not  oppose  it,  but,  Mr.  Pend- 
leton  among  the  number,  gave  it  most  hearty  and  cordial 
support.  Again,  when  that  distinguished  Democrat,  Mr. 
Vallandigham,  proposed  such  an  amendment  of  the  con- 
stitution as  worked  a  radical  change  in  the  very  structure 
of  our  government,  by  having  two  presidents,  one  from 
the  North  and  one  from  the  South,  Democratic  objectors 
were  silent.  Again,  when  Horatio  Seymour  proposed  a 
very  essential  amendment  to  the  constitution,  which  was 
nothing  less  than  the  substitution  of  the  Montgomery 
Confederate  constitution  in  the  place  of  our  own,  Demo- 
crats did  not  seem  to  be  particularly  alarmed,  nor  were 
they  entreatingly  besought  to  take  the  constitution  home 
with  them  and  place  it  on  the  family  altar  next  the  Bible, 
where  they  might  watch  it  in  the  intervals  of  their  slum- 
bers, and  dream  of  it  when  sleep  oppressed  their  eye-lids. 

"This  new-born  anxiety  in  the  Democratic  mind  about 
amending  the  constitution  springs  from  the  fact  that  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  amendments  are  in  the  interests 
of  freedom,  while  the  others  proposed  were  additional 
guarantees  for  slavery. 

' '  Mr,  Pendleton  in  his  speech  at  Portland,  delivered  on 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  83 

the  23d  day  of  August,  emphasizes  his  attack  upon  the 
Republican  party,  and  reiterates  it  by  declaring,  as  one  of 
the  crimes  of  which  the  Republican  party  has  been  guilty 
against  the  South,  that '  it  has  destroyed  their  labor  system  ; 
it  has  converted  three  million  of  industrious  negroes  into 
very  bad  politicians/  The  labor  system  to  which  Mr.  Pen- 
dleton  alludes  is  the  institution  of  slavery.  One  of  the 
peculiarities  of  the  system  was  that  it  was  all  work  and  no 
pay.  Mr.  Pendleton  complains  that  this  system  has  been 
abolished,  hopes  for  its  return,  and,  to  bring  his  hopes  to 
fruition,  demands  that  the  Republican  shall  be  driven  from 
power.  He  might  as  well  attempt  to  set  time  back,  to  roll 
the  tides  back  upon  the  sea  as  they  flow  upon  the  land. 
But  the  exhibition  of  such  an  intense  Bourbonism  as  this 
may  well  make  us  despair  of  ever  having  any  new  issues 
with  the  Democratic  party.  Mr.  Pendleton  is  kind 
enough  to  furnish  us  the  reason  why  he  should  not  give 
political  power  to  the  negro.  In  his  speech  at  Portland, 
he  said,  in  speaking  of  the  negro:  'I  would  not  admit 
him  to  political  power  because  I  believe  he  is  of  a  different 
race  from  ourselves.  I  am  in  favor  of  maintaining  this  a 
white  man's  government.'  A  discussion  of  such  a  topic  as 
the  origin  of  our  species,  the  diversity  of  races,  and  whether 
the  Almighty  made  of  one  flesh  all  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
perplexes  political  controversy.  Without  going  very  deeply 
into  that  subject,  the  Republican  party  contents  itself  that 
all  human  beings  are  entitled  to  human  rights,  and  that 
all  the  citizens  of  the  republic  should  stand  on  a  footing  of 
political  equality.  The  questions  of  intellectual  and  social 
equality  it  leaves  to  be  determined  by  what  each  man  may 
do  for  himself,  believing  that  every  man  should  have  the 
largest  liberty  in  doing  for  himself  in  the  way  of  social  or 
intellectual  development  all  that  he  can  do.  But  it  seems 
that  our  Democratic  friends  propose  to  determine  a  citi- 


84  POLITICAL  OIIATOKY. 

zen's  right  to  vote  by  physiological,  anatomical,  ethnolog- 
ical and  purely  scientific  tests.  For  this  purpose  we  may 
expect  the  endowment  of  a  university,  headed  by  Mr.  Pen- 
dleton,  assisted  by  those  able  savants,  Messrs.  Morrissey, 
Rynders,  Dean  and  Pomeroy,  and  before  whom  the  negro's 
right  of  suffrage  shall  be  subjected  to  the  just,  but  never- 
theless stern  and  relentless,  tests  of  science.  Before  such 
an  able  body  of  professors,  I  think  I  see  as  students  the 
earnest  searchers  after  truth  from  the  sixth  ward  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  numerously  appearing,  armed  with  a 
copy  of  Cuvier's  'Animal  Kingdom'  under  one  arm,  the 
'  Vestiges  of  Creation '  under  the  other,  and  in  their  pocket 
a  copy  of  the  Democratic  platform.  Upon  comparing  the 
astragalus  of  a  negro  with  the  astragalus  of  a  white  man,  it 
may  be  found  that  they  differ.  From  this  important  fact 
will  be  deduced  the  conclusion  that  they  are  of  different 
race,  and  denial  of  political  rights  to  the  negro  would  follow 
as  a  natural  consequence,  not  from  prejudice  against  the 
negro,  but  out  of  glory  to  science.  What  the  result  might 
be,  if  it  were  found  that  the  same  difference  in  the  astraga- 
lus existed  between  different  white  men,  I  cannot  undertake 
to  say  ;  and  the  results  which  might  flow  from  the  adoption 
of  the  theory  of  the  growth  of  human  beings  from  oysters 
up  to  monkeys  and  through  successive  stages  of  development 
until  creation  flowered  and  blossomed  out  into  the  perfect 
Democrat,  are  fearful  to  contemplate. 

"Ages  of  slavery  are  not  likely  to  develop  great  intel- 
lectual activity,  and,  to  a  certain  extent  at  least,  may  the 
negro's  want  of  intelligence  be  ascribed  to  the  condition  of 
bondage  in  which  he  has  been  kept.  A  slave  no  longer, 
the  problem  is,  how  he  may  be  made  sufficiently  intelli- 
gent to  discharge  all  the  duties  and  exercise  all  the  privi- 
leges of  a  citizen  wisely  and  well.  It  is  very  clear  that  to 
limit  his  opportunities  for  self-improvement  would  not 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  85 

result  in  a  satisfactory  solution  of  this  problem.  Mr.  Pen- 
dleton  seems  to  belong  to  that  class  of  politicians  who  are 
in  the  habit  of  laying  it  down  as  a  self-evident  proposition, 
that  no  people  ought  to  be  free  till  they  are  fit  to  use  their 
freedom.  '  If  men  are  to  wait  for  liberty  until  they  become 
wise  and  good  in  slavery,  they  may  indeed  wait  forever.' 
It  may  be  that  there  are  evils  resulting  from  the  newly 
acquired  freedom  of  the  slave.  But  as  Macaulay  has  well 
said,  '  There  is  only  one  cure  for  the  evils  which  newly- 
acquired  freedom  produces  —  and  that  cure  is  freedom  !' 
When  a  prisoner  leaves  his  cell  he  cannot  bear  the  light  of 
day  ;  he  is  unable  to  discriminate  colors  or  recognize  faces. 
But  the  remedy  is  not  to  remand  him  into  his  dungeon,  but 
to  accustom  him  to  the  rays  of  the  sun.  The  blaze  of  truth 
and  liberty  may  at  first  dazzle  and  bewilder  nations  which 
have  become  half  blind  in  the  house  of  bondage.  But  let 
them  gaze  on  and  they  will  soon  be  able  to  bear  it. 

"Mr.  Pendleton  demands  that  this  shall  be  a  white 
man's  government.  Whether  he  intends  to  exclude  from 
the  privileges  of  this  free  government  all  men  who  are  not 
white,  he  does  not  clearly  set  forth.  If  this  demand  means 
anything,  however,  it  means  that  none  but  white  men  shall 
be  permitted  to  be  citizens.  For  if  negroes,  under  any 
circumstances,  are  permitted  to  become  citizens,  this  cer- 
tainly would  not  be  exclusively  a  white  man's  government. 
The  result  of  this  doctrine  clearly  would  be  to  deprive  the 
freedman  of  his  newly-acquired  citizenship,  and  that  such 
is  the  purpose  of  the  Democratic  party,  appears  not  only 
from  their  platform  denouncing  the  legislation  by  which 
•that  citizenship  is  declared  and  secured  as  unconstitutional, 
revolutionary  and  void,  but  from  the  exposition  of  that 
platform  by  the  leading  members  of  the  party,  Mr.  Pen- 
dleton among  the  number. 

"  It  is  insisted,  however,  that  the  questions  of  citizen- 


86  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

ship  and  suffrage  should  be  left  exclusively  to  the  states. 
Under  ordinary  circumstances  this  would  be  so.     But  for 
the  nation  to  have  submitted  the  absolute  dominion  over 
our  friends  in  the  seceding  and  conquered  states  to  our 
enemies  in  those  states,  would  have  been  an  act  of  injustice 
so  outrageous  and  so  gross  as  justly  to  have  called  down 
upon  us  the  reproaches  of  every  nation  on  the  face  of  the 
globe.     In  the  process  of  reconstruction  the  injustice  of 
submitting  to  the  rebel  the  decision  of  the  extent  of  the 
rights  of  the  f  reedman  is  too  obvious  to  admit  of  comment. 
When  the  Democratic  party  insists  that  the  people  of  the 
rebellious  states  shall  decide  who  shall  be  citizens  and  who 
shall  be  voters  in  those  states,  they  do  not  mean  what  they 
say,  for  by  the  people  they  mean,  not  the  negro,  who  has 
achieved  his  citizenship  by  his  loyalty,  but  the  rebel,  who 
has  forfeited  his  privileges  by  his  treason.     And  hence  in 
the  decision  of  this  question  the  f  reedman,  who  is  especially 
interested,  shall  have  nothing  to  say,  while  the  rebel  shall 
have  everything  to  say.     If  the  citizenship  of  the  negro  in 
the  rebellious  states  is  to  be  recognized  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  it  would  seem  clear  that   the  enjoyment  of  the  privi- 
leges of  civilization  should  be  secured  and  guaranteed  him. 
If  to  protect  him  in  the  full  and  complete  enjoyment  of 
those  rights  the  ballot  is  necessary,  I  for  one  would  confer 
it  upon  him.     I  would  make  the  gift  no  idle  one.     I  would 
have  it  real  and  substantial.     I  believe  that  in  the  states 
covered  by  the  reconstruction  measures  the  ballot  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  protect  the  negro  in  his  newly  acquired 
rights,  and,  believing  that,  I  would  give  him  the  ballot, 
feeling  well  assured  that  he  who  had  sufficient  intelligence 
to  throw  the  weight  of  his  influence  in  favor  of  the  nation 
in  its  struggle  for  its  existence,  and  sufficient  courage  and 
patriotism  to  peril  his  life  in  the  nation's  defense,  would 
be  quite  as  likely  to  use  the  ballot  wisely  and  well  as  he  who 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  87 

waged  for  four  years  a  rebellious  war  against  the  nation. 
"  The  denial  of  the  right  of  Congress  to  legislate  upon 
these  questions  proceeds  upon  the  assumption  that  the 
seceding  states  and  the  people  thereof  lost  nothing  by  their 
rebellion.  Mr.  Pendleton  in  his  speech  at  Bangor  declares, 
with  reference  to  the  seceding  states,  that  their  state 
governments  '  were  in  full  vigor  and  operation  before  and 
during  and  after  the  war.'  With  reference  to  the  vigor 
of  those  state  governments  before  the  war,  no  question  is 
made.  But  that  they  were  in  full  vigor  as  state  govern- 
ments within  the  Union  during  the  war  we  deny.  We 
recognized  their  vigor  as  state  governments  during  the 
war.  They  vigorously  raised  troops  and  vigorously  carried 
on  war  against  the  nation.  They  did  these  things  as  state 
governments  outside  the  Union,  and  as  members  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy,  and  it  seems  somewhat  curious  that 
such  exhibitions  of  vigor  which  we  finally  succeeded  in 
pulling  down  should  be  adduced  as  reasons  why  we  have 
no  control  over  them  now.  Had  there  been  during  the 
war  less  vigor  of  this  kind  there  would  have  been  less  cause 
of  complaint  on  our  part.  Had  there  been  more  vigor  the 
nation  would  have  been  destroyed.  Had  there  been  no 
vigor,  such  as  was  exhibited  by  the  Confederate  state 
governments,  there  would  have  been  no  war.  That  those 
state  governments  had  during  the  war  no  vigor  within 
the  Union  which  they  were  seeking  to  destroy,  is  a  fact 
which  cannot  be  upset  by  any  amount  of  plausible 
theory.  If  during  that  time  they  were  as  a  matter  of  fact 
state  governments  within  the  Southern  Confederacy,  they 
were  not  within  the  Union.  They  could  not  be  within 
both  the  Confederacy  and  the  Union  at  the  same  time. 
The  task  of  showing  that  during  the  rebellion  the  South- 
ern states  were  not,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  members  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy  may  safely  be  left  to  Democratic 


88  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

orators  and  statesmen.  If  they  could  have  been  argued 
out  of  the  Confederacy  and  into  the  Union,  that  remedy 
would  certainly  have  been  employed  during '  the  war.  If 
it  could  have  been  made  efficacious,  its  cheapness  compared 
with  the  vast  armies  which  we  were,  as  we  supposed, 
obliged  to  employ  to  effect  that  object  would  certainly 
have  been  a  great  recommendation  in  its  favor. 

"Nearly  two  hundred  years  ago  the  British  nation  was 
called  upon  to  face  very  much  such  a  theory  as  the  one 
now  insisted  upon  by  Mr.  Pendleton  and  the  Democratic 
party.  King  James  II.  was  a  model  conservative.  His 
character  bears  many  striking  resemblances  to  that  of 
Andrew  Johnson.  It  is  said  of  him  by  an  eminent  histo- 
rian, 'The  obstinate  and  imperious  nature  of  the  king  gave 
great  advantages  to  those  who  advised  him  to  be  firm  to 
yield  nothing,  and  to  make  himself  feared.  One  state 
maxim  had  taken  possession  of  his  small  understanding 
and  was  not  to  be  dislodged  by  reason.  His  mode  of 
arguing,  if  it  is  to  be  so  called,  was  one  not  uncommon 
among  dull  and  stubborn  persons  who  are  accustomed  to 
be  surrounded  by  their  inferiors.  He  asserted  a  proposi- 
tion ;  and  as  often  as  wiser  people  ventured  respectfully  to 
show  that  it  was  erroneous,  he  asserted  it  again  in  exactly 
the  same  words,  and  conceived  that  by  doing  so  he  at  once 
disposed  of  all  objections/  By  various  acts  of  parliament, 
penalties  had  been  imposed  and  tests  applied  against  partic- 
ular individuals,  depriving  them  of  office,  and  James  pro- 
posed to  exercise  the  dispensing  power  so  as  substantially 
to  annul  those  acts  of  Parliament.  This  he  called  '  my 
policy.'  Finding  Parliament  refractory,  he  determined  to 
call  together  a  new  Parliament,  and  in  doing  so  employed 
precisely  the  same  agencies  to  secure  a  Parliament  favor- 
able to  his  purposes,  as  were  resorted  to  by  Andrew  John- 
son in  1866.  Returning  officers  were  appointed,  directed 


POLITICAL  OTIATORY.  89 

to  avail  themselves  of  the  slightest  pretense  to  declare  the 
king's  friends  duly  elected.  Every  placeman,  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest,  was  made  to  understand  that  if  he 
wished  to  retain  his  office,  he  must  support  the  throne  by 
his  vote  and  interest.  A  proclamation  appeared  in  the 
Gazette,  announcing  that  the  king  had  determined  to 
revive  the  commissions  of  peace  and  of  lieutenancy,  and  to 
retain  in  public  employment  only  such  gentlemen  as  should 
be  disposed  to  support  his  policy.  The  commissioners  of 
custom  and  excise  were  ordered  to  attend  his  Majesty  at 
the  treasury.  There  he  demanded  from  them  a  promise 
to  support  his  policy,  and  directed  them  to  require  a  similar 
promise  from  all  their  subordinates.  One  custom  house 
officer  notified  his  submission  to  the  royal  will  by  saying 
that  he  had  fourteen  reasons  for  obeying  his  Majesty's 
commands, —  a  wife  and  thirteen  young  children.  But 
with  all  these  precautions,  James  failed,  as  Andrew  failed. 
The  new  Parliament  were  more  stubborn  and  refractory 
than  the  old  had  been,  and  finally  James  fled  the  country, . 
took  his  son  with  him  and  went  to  France.  And  there 
the  question  arose  whether  the  states  were  out  of  the 
Union.  At  once  there  arose  in  Great  Britain  a  party  who 
insisted  upon  the  theory  that  there  could  be  no  vacancy  in 
the  throne;  that  James  not  being  dead,  the  throne  was  not 
vacant,  and  that,  accordingly,  writs  must  run  in  his  name. 
Acts  of  Parliament  must  be  still  called  from  the  years  of 
his  reign,  but  that  the  administration  must  nevertheless  be 
confided  to  a  regent.  Macaulay  says  that  '  it  seems  incred- 
ible that  any  man  should  really  have  been  imposed  upon 
by  such  nonsense.'  And  yet  it  had  great  weight  with  the 
whole  Tory  party.  The  difficulty  was  solved  by  the 
British  people,  very  much  as  the  loyal  people  of  the 
country  have  answered  the  Democratic  theory.  'We 
recognize,'  said  the  British  people,  '  the  general  correctness 


90  POLITICAL  OtlATOftY. 

of  the  theory,  as  a  legal  proposition,  that  the  throne  can- 
not be  vacant.  But  whatever  the  theory  may  be,  we  look 
at  the  throne,  and  see  that  as  a  matter  of  fact  no  one  oc- 
cupies it.  It  is  vacant/  They  accordingly  declared  the 
fact  as  they  saw  it  —  that  the  throne  was  vacant— and, 
being  vacant,  they  proceeded  to  fill  it.  And  they  did  fill 
it  in  a  way  which  secured  constitutional  liberty  to  the 
British  nation  down  to  this  day.  And  so  the  people  of  this 
country  recognize  the  fact  that  for  four  years  the  rebellious 
states  were  out  of  the  Union  ;  that  they  did  establish  and 
sought  to  perpetuate  an  independent  government ;  that 
their  places  in  the  Union  were  vacant ;  that  their  seats  in 
Congress  were  vacant.  That  they  had  no  right  thus  to 
rebel  we  well  knew ;  that  the  right  to  exercise  national 
authority  over  them  was  never  destroyed  we  also  well 
knew.  That  their  secession  did  not  impair  the  rights  of 
the  nation  over  them  we  perfectly  well  understood ;  but 
that  it  did  impair  their  rights  within  the  nation  we  believe 
was  equally  clear.  Their  argument  is  based  upon  their 
own  wrong,  and  they  claim  that  they  lost  no  political 
rights  by  rebellion  because  they  had  no  right  to  rebel. 

"The  position  of  the  Confederate  states  during  the 
war  was  defined  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the  loyal  peo- 
ple of  the  country  by  Mr.  Lincoln  in  his  amnesty  procla- 
mation, December  8,  1863.  He  there  declares  that  by  the 
rebellion  the  loyal  state  governments  of  several  states  '  have 
for  a  long  time  been  subverted; '  that  the  national  author- 
ity has  been  suspended;  that  we  are  to  reconstruct  and 
re-establish  loyal  state  governments,  and  that  the  conces- 
sions demanded  by  him  were  in  return  for  pardon  and 
restoration  of  forfeited  rights.  The  work  of  reconstruction 
has  been  based  upon  this  theory  and  upon  the  facts.  As 
a  consequence  of  the  rebellion,  the  national  authority  over 
the  rebellious  states  was  superseded,  to  be  assumed  when  it 


POLITICAL  OUATORY.  91 

achieved  the  power  to  do  so,  the  state  governments  of 
those  states  were  subverted,  overthrown  to  be  reestablished 
when  we  had  the  physical  power  to  do  so.  Remembering 
in  the  language  of  Mr.  Lincoln  that  an  'attempt  to  guar- 
antee and  protect  a  revived  state  government,  constructed 
in  whole  or  in  preponderating  part  from  the  very  element 
against  whose  hostility  and  violence  it  is  to  be  protected,  is 
simply  absurd.  There  must  be  a  test  by  which  to  separate 
the  opposing  elements  so  as  to  build  only  from  the  sound ; 
the  political  rights  of  the  people  of  those  states  had  been 
forfeited,'  to  be  restored  only  upon  such  terms  as  the  nation 
might  see  fit  to  impose. 

"  Such  being  the  condition  of  the  seceded  states  and 
people  during  the  war,  how  was  any  change  effected  in 
their  condition  by  the  defeat  of  their  armies?  Our  rights 
over  them  when  their  armies  surrendered  were  certainly  as 
great  as  when  they  kept  the  field  against  us.  Our  power 
over  them  was  greater.  Clearly  the  Southern  Confederacy 
could  achieve  no  rights  which  they  had  not  during  the  war, 
merely  because  their  armies  had  been  defeated  by  ours,  and 
they  were  unable  further  to  prosecute  the  war.  The  defeat 
of  a  rebellion  cannot  enlarge  its  rights.  During  the  war, 
we  had,  as  against  the  South,  the  rights  to  say  the  least 
which  any  nation  would  have  in  waging  war,  or  which  we 
would  have  had  in  waging  war  against  any  other  nation. 
We  had  the  rights  of  war  because  we  were  at  war,  and  when 
the  war  closed,  we  victorious  and  the  Southern  Confeder- 
acy conquered,  we  had  the  rights  which  the  position  gave 
to  us,  namely,  the  rights  of  a  conqueror,  and  they  had  the 
rights  which  their  position  gave  them,  namely,  the  rights 
of  a  conquered  people.  To  what  extent  we  should  exercise 
those  rights  was  another  question.  But  to  say  that  at  the 
close  of  a  long  war  the  rights  of  the  conqueror  and  the  con- 
quered are  equal  is  an  absurdity  and  an  impossibility.  If 


92  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

it  required  four  years  of  war,  five  hundred  thousand  lives 
and  the  expenditure  of  three  thousand  millions  of  money 
to  conquer  the  seceding  states  down  to  a  condition  of  equal- 
ity with  us,  they  must  certainly  have  been  our  superiors 
when  the  war  began.  It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  we 
conquered  not  only  the  armies  of  the  rebellion,  but  the 
entire  structure  of  government,  state  and  national,  which 
rebellion  organized  and  to  maintain  which  its  armies  fought. 
And  when  the  Confederate  flag  went  down  in  final  defeat 
at  Appomattox  courthouse,  the  Southern  Confederacy  and 
every  state  government  organized  under  it  went  down  with 
it.  The  results  of  these  victories  are  gathered  in  the  four- 
teenth constitutional  amendment.  We  intend  they  shall 
remain  there. 

"  It  is  not  strange  that  the  Democratic  party,  having 
opposed  every  measure  resorted  to  by  the  administration 
for  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  and  denounced  the  Repub- 
lican party  as  guilty  of  gross  usurpation  of  power  in  the 
means  which  it  employed  to  crush  out  rebellion,  should 
look  with  exceeding  disfavor  upon  the  'debt  which  the 
nation  was  compelled  to  contract  in  order  to  furnish  for  its 
defense  men  and  munitions  of  war.  The  staple  charge 
made  against  the  Republican  party  by  Democratic  orators 
is  that  it  has  left  a  legacy  of  $2,700,000,000  of  debt  to  the 
people.  It  is  hardly  worth  while  to  discuss  the  question  as 
to  where  the  responsibility  of  this  great  debt  properly 
belongs.  If  the  Democratic  party  and  the  South  are 
responsible  for  the  war,  then  are  they  responsible  for  the 
debt,  and  that  they  are  so  responsible  the  people  of  this 
country  have  repeatedly  decided  and  still  firmly  believe. 
The  debt  was  created  in  order  to  crush  rebellion,  and  now 
that  the  active  leaders  and  fomentors  of  that  rebellion  of 
the  South,  with  their  sympathizers  at  the  North,  should 
charge  upon  the  people  whose  government  they  undertook 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  93 

to  destroy  the  responsibility  of  the  debt,  is  an  exhibition  of 
impudence  to  which  history  furnishes  no  parallel.  They 
may  feel  thankful  that  they  are  not  compelled  alone  to  bear 
its  burdens.  But  assume  that  this  debt  is  to  be  charged  up 
against  the  Eepublican  party,  how  then  would  the  account 
stand?  In  the  national  ledger  we  might  find  the  party 
charged  with  twenty-seven  hundred  millions  of  dollars 
loaned  to  it  by  the  people;  but  we  would  find  it  credited,  if 
the  accounts  were  correctly  kept,  with  a  nation  saved.  In 
whose  favor  the  balance  would  be  could  be  quite  easily 
determined;  for  to  this  nation — the  only  sanctuary  of  free 
government  on  earth — no  value  can  be  set.  Its  value  is 
incalculable. 

"  We  propose  to  pay  our  national  debt  in  money.  Of 
that  debt  $356,000,000  are  in  promises  of  the  government 
long  since  past  due,  and  which  as  yet  the  government  has 
been  unable  to  pay.  This  debt  is  owing  to  the  people,  for 
a  loan  which  at  an  early  stage  of  the  war  the  government 
forced  the  people  to  make  to  it.  Every  holder  of  a  green- 
back is  a  government  creditor,  and  has  a  right  to  demand 
payment  before  the  holder  of  any  bond  shall  be  paid,  because 
the  greenback  is  due  and  the  bond  is  not.  It  is  our  policy, 
and  it  is  wise  policy,  to  pay  this  past  due  indebtedness  at 
the  earliest  possible  moment.  We  all  desire  a  resumption 
of  specie  payments  as  early  as  possible,  and  that,  it  would 
seem,  is  the  duty  which  first  presses  upon  us.  The  stability 
of  business,  every  interest  indeed,  demands  an  early  resump- 
tion of  specie  payments,  or,  in  other  words,  the  payment 
of  the  $356,000,000  of  its  indebtedness  represented  by 
greenbacks.  So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn  from  read- 
ing its  speeches,  the  Democratic  party  also  professes  to 
desire  that  specie  payments  may  be  soon  resumed.  But 
the  general  method  which  it  recommends  for  the  treatment 
of  the  national  debt  would  not  only  indefinitely  postpone 


94  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

specie  payments,  but  would  render  it  impossible.  It  is 
easy  to  see  that  if  an  individual  was  desirous  of  extricating 
himself  from  his  indebtedness"  he  would  first  direct  his 
attention  to  the  payment  of  that  which  was  first  due,  and 
attend  to  the  balance  of  his  indebtedness  in  the  order  of 
its  maturity.  If  such  a  man  were  owing  $5,000  of  indebt- 
edness past  due,  and  which  he  was  still  unable  to  pay,  and 
$25,000  of  indebtedness  to  mature  at  some  future  period, 
and  bearing  interest,  he  would  not  be  considered  a  very 
wise  financier  if  he  were  to  insist  that  his  paper  should  all 
be  made  due  at  once  in  order  to  save  interest.  In  other 
words,  a  man's  ability  to  pay  his  debts  is  not  advanced  by 
doubling  the  amount  of  his  present  liabilities.  In  addition 
to  the  greenback  debt,  the  government  owes  $160,000,000 
of  indebtedness,  represented  by  what  are  known  as  the  5-20 
bonds,  bearing  interest  at  six  per  cent,  and  due  in  about 
twenty  years.  This  debt  the  Democratic  party  proposes 
shall  be  paid  in  greenbacks  and  that  it  shall  be  immediately 
paid.  This  would,  of  course,  involve  the  necessity  of  the 
issuance  of  that  amount  of  greenbacks  in  addition  to  the 
amount  already  in  circulation.  If  we  are  yet  unable  to 
resume  specie  payments,  it  is  not  very  difficult  to  see  that 
by  making  our  demand  debt  five  times  larger  than  it  now 
is,  what  is  now  difficult  would  become  impossible,  and  we 
could  expect  nothing  but  an  eternity  of  irredeemable  and 
depreciated  paper  currency.  And  thus  the  immediate 
results  of  the  adoption  of  the  Democratic  policy  would  be 
to  eternally  dishonor  the  payment  of  the  indebtedness 
owing  by  the  government  to  the  people.  The  proposition 
to  pay  the  5-20  bonds  in  greenbacks  amounts  to  nothing, 
unless  we  understand  when  payment  is  to  be  made  in  that 
way.  If  we  await  the  maturity  of  these  bonds,  and  green- 
backs have,  in  the  meantime,  so  appreciated  that  they  are 
at  par  with  gold,  the  question  as  to  whether  payment  shall 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  95 

be  made  in  gold  or  greenbacks  has  not  the  slightest  conse- 
quence, and  any  human  being  accountable  to  his  Maker 
for  the  proper  use  of  his  time  could  find  no  justification  in 
spending  any  portion  of  it  in  the  discussion  of  such  a  ques- 
tion. If  it  is  intended,  however,  that  the  debts  shall  be 
paid  in  greenbacks  now,  inflation  is  a  necessity,  for  the 
greenbacks  can  be  had  in  no  other  way.  That  such  is  the 
intention  of  the  Democratic  party,  is  clearly  shown  by  the 
reasons  which  they  urge  in  support  of  that  scheme.  They 
allege  that  the  people  are  burdened  with  taxation,  and  that 
this  taxation  results  from  the  necessity  of  paying  the  inter- 
est upon  the  public  debt,  and  that  by  the  payment  of  the 
principal  this  burden  will  be  removed.  If  they  mean  what 
they  say,  when  they  assert  that  their  purpose  is  at  once  to 
relieve  the  people  from  the  burdens  of  taxation,  then  they 
can  mean  nothing  else  than  that  they  intend  to  accomplish 
that  end  by  an  immediate  payment,  as  they  call  it,  of  the 
national  debt  in  greenbacks.  Mr.  Pendleton,  generally, 
has  the  credit  of  organizing  this  scheme,  and  he  clearly 
fixes  the  time  when  he  proposes  that  payment  shall  be 
made.  In  his  speech  at  Centralia  he  said,  *  I  would  inflate 
if  we  were  driven  to  it,  just  as  much  as  is  necessary  to  pay 
these  5-20  bonds  in  greenbacks.  And  I  say  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  government,  in  one  way  or  another,  either  out  of  its 
savings,  out  of  the  destruction  of  the  national  bank  sys- 
tem, or  out  of  inflation,  to  pay  these  bonds  just  as  soon  as, 
under  the  law,  the  government  can  pay  them  to  save  the 
interest/  The  government  has  the  right,  under  the  law, 
to  pay  one-third  of  those  bonds  now,  and  accordingly  Mr. 
Pendleton  means  that  they  shall  be  paid  now.  It  is  only 
by  inflation  to  the  amount  of  these  bonds  that  they  can 
now  be  paid,  and  hence  inflation  would  be  a  necessity. 
But  Mr.  Pendleton  suggests  two  or  three  methods,  one  of 
which  is  payment  out  of  the  government  savings.  But  the 


96  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

Democratic  party  proposes  to  raise  no  more  money  than  is 
absolutely  necessary  to  pay  the  ordinary  expenses  of  govern- 
ment, and  under  that  theory  it  would  have.no  savings. 
These  savings,  whatever  they  might  be,  can  be  produced 
only  by  taxes,  and  the  Democratic  party  proposes  very 
materially  to  reduce  them.  It  charges  that  the  present 
revenues  of  the  government  are  largely  in  excess  of  its 
needs,  and  proposes  to  reduce  them.  In  short,  the  plan  of 
paying  the  national  debt  out  of  our  surplus  revenues 
involves  the  necessity  of  increasing  taxation.  It  is  the 
policy  of  the  Republican  party  to  diminish  it. 

"  Another  scheme  suggested  by  Mr.  Pendleton  is  the 
payment  of  the  national  debt  out  of  the  destruction  of  the 
national  bank  system.  When  we  consider  the  taxes 
imposed  upon  the  shares  of  those  banks  and  the  federal 
taxes  which  they  pay,  but  about  $3,000,000  per  year  would 
be  saved  by  this  operation,  and  whether  that  would  com- 
pensate for  the  panics  created  by  sudden  contraction  and 
calling  in  of  loans,  which  the  destruction  of  those  banks 
would  involve,  is  a  question  about  which  there  may  well  be 
grave  doubts.  It  is  not,  however,  a  party  issue,  and  it  is 
enough  to  say  that  the  payment  of  $3,000,000  per  year  of 
the  national  debt  would  be  a  very  slow  way  of  extinguish- 
ing it,  and  would  hardly  be  a  payment  now,  which  Mr. 
Pendleton  demands.  Thus  these  two  schemes  are  evidently 
impracticable,  and  so  Mr.  Pendleton  evidently  considers 
them,  for  he  frankly  says  that  he  would  inflate  if  we  were 
driven  to  it,  just  as  much  as  is  necessary  to  pay  those  5-20 
bonds  in  greenbacks. 

"We  have  already  seen  that  his  plan  involves  the  prac- 
tical repudiation  of  the  greenbacks,  and  accordingly  the 
practical  repudiation  of  the  bonds.  For  the  proposition 
simply  amounts  to  this  —  a  pretended  payment  by  the  gov- 
ernment of  one  debt;  by  the  creation  of  another  debt, 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  97 

which  by  the  very  act  of  its  creation  is  made  worthless. 
By  such  an  inflation,  the  government  renders  its  own  prom- 
ises worthless,  compels  its  creditor  to  take  that  promise 
which  it  has  of  its  own  act  made  valueless,  and  calls  that 
payment.  I  need  not  dwell  upon  the  ingenuity  of  this 
proceeding,  nor  the  effect  which  it  must  have  upon  the 
future  credit  of  the  country.  I  need  not  repeat  here  that 
when  those  bonds  were  issued,  the  government  through  its 
agents,  represented  that  they  were  to  be  paid  in  coin,  and 
that  when  the  law  authorizing  the  issuance  of  those  bonds 
was  under  discussion,  every  one  who  had  anything  to  say 
upon  the  subject  insisted  that  the  fact  that  they  were  to 
be  paid  in  coin  was  one  of  the  great  reasons  recommending 
them  to  popular  favor ;  that  the  provision  requiring  the 
payment  of  the  interest  in  coin  was  placed  in  the  law  to 
guard  against  any  possibility  of  misconstruction  which 
might  arise  from  the  fact  that  interest  would  mature  b'efore 
the  resumption  of  specie  payments,  a  contingency  which 
no  one  contemplated  with  reference  to  the  principal,  and, 
therefore,  no  such  provision  was  deemed  necessary  as  to  it. 

"  Nor  need  I  enlarge  upon  the  calamities  which  would 
inevitably  follow  such  a  vast  inflation.  The  whole  body  of 
our  currency  would'be  rendered  comparatively  worthless, 
gold  would  be  drawn  from  the  country  by  such  a  vast  body 
of  irredeemable  currency,  and  values  not  only  unsettled 
but  substantially  destroyed. 

"This  would  work  not  merely  a  burden  upon  the 
interests  of  labor,  but  would  be  the  destruction  of  those 
interests  —  the  paralyzation  of  trade,  the  overthrow  of  com- 
merce, industry  palsied,  enterprise  deadened, —  these  would 
be  among  the  first  fruits  of  the  inflation  policy,  and  which 
would  grow  worse  as  the  years  rolled  on. 

"  Added  to  this  would  be  the  utter  loss  of  national 
honor,  the  complete  destruction  of  national  credit.  Thus 


98  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

situated,  without  the  ability  to  borrow  a  dollar  in  money, 
for  any  purpose,  either  to  enable  us  to  punish  our  enemies 
or  to  defend  ourselves  against  foreign  or  domestic  foes, 
the  Democratic  programme  of  overthrowing  the  state  gov- 
ernments organized  under  the  reconstruction  measures  of 
Congress,  which  they  denounce  as  revolutionary,  uncon- 
stitutional and  void,  could  be  easily  and  would  be  readily 
carried  into  execution. 

"  The  scheme  of  taking  government  bonds  is  equally 
wicked,  equally  impracticable,  and  a  part  of  the  same 
general  scheme  of  running  the  national  credit. 

"That  the  state  cannot  tax  those  bonds  every  one 
knows.  That  Congress  cannot  confer  the  power  upon  the 
states  to  tax  them  is  authoritatively  settled.  All  this  Mr. 
Pendleton  has  been  forced  to  admit,  and  yet  he  thinks 
that  in  some  way  or  other,  which  he  does  not  attempt  to 
point  out,  some  man  with  a  '  clear  head  and  an  honest  pur- 
pose '  may  be  able  to  devise  some  scheme  by  which  the  law 
with  reference  to  the  taxation  of  the  national  securities 
may  be  evaded. 

"  To  retain  from  the  foreign  bondholder  a  portion  of 
his  interest  is  not  taxation.  That  is  repudiation.  The 
Kepublican  party  proposes  such  a  policy  as  will  result  in 
improving  the  national  credit,  thereby  enabling  it  to  bor- 
row money  at  lower  rates  than  it  is  obliged  to  pay.  This 
done,  the  road  out  of  our  difficulties  is  easy  and  honorable. 
Our  ability  to  pay  our  national  debt  is  settled.  Our 
willingness  now  alone  remains  to  be  decided.  That  ques- 
tion decided,  as  it  will  be  by  the  election  of  Grant  and 
Coif  ax,  in  the  affirmative,  our  credit  is  safe,  and  the  adjust- 
ment of  our  national  debt  easy. 

"  In  the  presence  of  such  an  attack  upon  the  national 
life  and  honor,  preserved  at  so  vast  a  cost,  who  is  there 
that  does  not  say,  in  the  language  of  our  great  captain, 


POLITICAL  ORATORY  99 

'  Let  us  have  peace/ — the  peace  that  comes  from  good 
government,  the  peace  that  comes  from  equality  of  political 
privileges,  the  peace  that  follows  a  vindication  of  national 
honor,  and  the  assertion  of  the  national  credit ;  the  peace 
which  will  come  when  rebellion,  in  all  its  shapes,  is  con- 
quered and  all  its  heresies  extirpated ;  the  peace  which  a 
careful  preservation  of  the  fruits  of  our  great  victories  will 
insure  ;  the  peace  which  will  come  when  we  are  secured 
against  future  attacks  upon  the  national  life.  A  peace 
thus  secured  is  full  of  glory  for  the  future.  Such  a  peace 
is  solid  and  enduring,  and  its  green  and  sunny  slopes  stretch 
out  in  infinite  distances  before  us.  For  such  a  peace,  all 
generations  of  time  will  thank  us.  The  widowed  wife  of 
the  soldier  will  thank  us  for  it ;  the  bereaved  mother  whose 
boy  died  that  he  might  have  such  a  peace,  will  thank  us 
for  it ;  and  ringing  through  the  very  arches  of  Heaven,  will 
come  the  thanks  of  the  spirits  of  the  slain  heroes  of  the 
republic,  that  we  have  secured  the  peace  for  which  they 
died." 


CHAPTER  V. 

IN  1872  the  Republican  party  had  not  only  to  con- 
tend with  its  recognized  Democratic  opponents,  but 
with  a  discontented  band  within  its  own  ranks,  led  by 
Carl  Schurz,  whose  great  cry  was  for  civil  service  reform, 
but  who  also  disapproved  of  the  reconstruction  meas- 
ures of  General  Grant's  administration  as  too  radical 
and  repressive  towards  the  rebel  element  of  the  South. 
The  doings  of  the  "  Ku-Klux  "  had  made  military  inter- 
ference necessary,  and  General  Grant  had  not  hesitated 
to  put  down  their  lawless  organization  by  military  force. 
Mr.  Storrs  thoroughly  believed  that  any  truckling  to 
the  ruffians  who  drove  negroes  from  the  polls,  and  shot 
down  white  men  suspected  of  sympathy  with  the  negro 
in  respect  to  his  civil  rights,  was  mere  cowardice,  and 
sure  to  end  in  defeating  the  action  of  Congress  on 
behalf  of  that  oppressed  race.  He  was,  moreover,  an 
ardent  admirer  of  the  strong  soldier  President.  He 
therefore  threw  himself  into  the  campaign  of  1S72  with 
all  his  characteristic  energy  and  enthusiasm  as  an  advo- 
cate of  the  reelection  of  President  Grant. 

The  disaffected  Republicans,  arrogating  to  them- 
selves the  title  of  "  liberal "  Republicans,  were  joined 
by  some  who  had  become  Democrats  after  the  impeach- 
ment of  Andrew  Johnson,  and  held  a  convention  at 
Cincinnati  in  May,  where  they  nominated  Horace  Gree- 
ley  for  President.  The  Republican  convention  of  the 
state  of  Illinois  met  at  Springfield  toward  the  end  of 
May,  and  Mr.  Storrs,  who  was  there  as  a  delegate, 

100 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  101 

addressed  a  mass-meeting  in  the  hall  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  the  night  before  its  session  was  form- 
ally opened.  The  first  sentences  that  he  uttered  evoked 
an  enthusiasm  which  was  sustained  to  the  end.  He 
began  by  saying : 

"It  is  quite  evident  from  what  I  see  before  me  here  to- 
night that  the  Republicans  of  the  state  of  Illinois  have 
but  little  thought  of  abandoning  their  party  colors,  or  of 
deserting  that  glorious  political  organization  which  for 
fifteen  years  of  our  past  history  has  represented  the  purest 
patriotism,  the  best  thought  and  the  highest  impulses  of 
the  country.  Coming  together  from  every  portion  of  the 
state  to  take  counsel  with  each  other,  we  have  found, 
I  have  been  delighted  to  note,  that  in  our  ranks  there  is  no 
faltering,  and  that  no  appeals  to  merely  personal  preju- 
dices, no  platforms  which  have  their  foundation  on  mere 
personal  grievances,  can  swerve  the  old  party  of  the  Union 
a  hair's-breadth  from  its  course. 

"  A  year  ago  the  Democratic  party,  tired  and  heart-sick 
at  over  ten  years  of  continuous  defeats,  took  what  they 
called  'a  new  departure.'  How  dismal  a  failure  they 
made  of  it  I  will  not  distress  them  nor  weary  you  by  re- 
peating. We  have  had  for  several  years  in  our  own  party 
many  very  excellent  gentlemen  who,  wearied  with  success, 
and  finding  that  the  Democratic  '  new  departure '  was  a 
failure,  have  undertaken  to  get  up  one  of  their  own,  and 
ask  the  Republican  party  to  join  with  them.  The  experi- 
ment which  the  Democracy  tried  was  an  entirely  safe  one, 
for  however  it  might  result,  it  was  impossible  that  their 
condition  should  be  any  worse  than  it  was.  They  could 
lose  nothing  by  failure,  and  therefore  it  was  entirely  safe 
to  try.  But  we  are  very  differently  situated.  It  is  very 
doubtful  whether  our  condition  could  be  improved  by  the 
success  of  such  an  experiment,  while  it  is  entirely  cer- 


102  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

tain  that  it  would  be  seriously  damaged  by  a  failure.  As  a 
matter  of  common  prudence,  I  object  to  any  Republican 
new  departure.  We  started  right  at  the  outset.  We 
have  been  going  right  ever  since.  We  have  reached  the 
haven  of  success  and  victory  at  the  end  of  each  trip.  A 
new  departure  would  probably  land  us  in  another  port,  and 
whoever  leaves  our  craft,  to  adopt  the  Democratic  style  of 
navigation,  will  wind  up  by  becoming  one  of  them,  for  new 
departure  will  land  him  where  theirs  landed  them:  on  the 
bleak  and  desolate  shores  of  political  defeat  and  disappoint- 
ment. 

"  I  fail  see  any  good  reason  why  I  should  leave  the 
Republican  party.  I  fail  to  see  why  the  party  itself  should 
be  dissolved.  If  for  nothing  more  than  what  it  has  done, 
we  should  be  loth  to  desert  it,  and  least  of  all  should  we 
leave  it  until  we  can  find  some  organization  which  will  suit 
us  better." 

He  then  appealed  to  the  past  record  of  the  Republi- 
can party,  and  contended  that  the  interests  of  the  coun- 
try would  be  safest  in  their  hands. 

"  But  complaint  is  made  that  it  has  no  new  policy  to 
propose;  that  the  country  requires,  now  that  the  war  has 
ended,  a  line  of  policy  looking  solely  to  the  conditions  of 
peace,  and  that  the  Republican  party  has  failed  to  furnish 
it.  On  this  basis  a  new  party  has  been  organized,  called 
the  Liberal  Republicans.  Why  they  are  thus  called  I 
shall  presently  undertake  to  show.  We  are  all  invited  to 
abandon  the  old  organization,  to  throw  General  Grant 
overboard;  but  before  accepting  such  invitation,  I  desire 
to  know  what  new  line  of  policy  this  new  party  proposes; 
what  measures  it  favors  which  are  not  already  adopted  by 
the  Republican  party." 

He  proceeded  to  review  the  issues  upon  which  the 
Cincinnati  party  based  their  platform.  In  his  last  raes- 


POLITICAL  ORATOHY.  103 

sage,  President  Grant  had  recommended  the  removal  of 
the  disabilities  imposed  by  the  fourteenth  amendment, 
and  Congress  had  taken  action  on  the  subject,  so  that 
"  general  amnesty  "  was  likely  soon  to  be  made  a  dead 
issue. 

On  the  question  of  civil  service  reform,  about  which 
a  great  clamor  was  made  at  Cincinnati,  Mr.  Storrs 
again  referred  to  the  message  of  President  Grant,  ad- 
vising a  reform  of  the  civil  service  and  announcing  that 
he  had  appointed  a  commission  to  devise  rules  and  regula- 
tions for  the  purpose.  "Their  labors/'  said  General 
Grant,  "  are  not  yet  complete ;  but  it  is  believed  that 
they  will  succeed  in  devising  a  plan  that  can  be  adopted, 
to  the  great  relief  of  the  executive,  the  heads  of  depart, 
ments,  and  members  of  congress,  and  which  will  re- 
dound to  the  true  interest  of  the  public  service.  At  all 
events  the  experiment  shall  have  a  fair  trial." 

'•'  He  appointed  on  that  commission  Joseph  Medill,  one 
of  the  editors  of  the  Chicago  Tribune,  when  the  Chicago 
Tribune  was  a  republican  paper  —  a  true  and  able  man ;  Geo. 
W.  Curtis;  one  of  the  most  cultivated  and  trustworthy  men 
in  the  country;  ex-Senator  Cattell,  of  New  Jersey,  and  a 
Southern  gentleman  of  equal  prominence.  His  desire  to 
give  this  civil  service  reform  a  fair  trial  was  demonstrated 
by  the  character  of  the  men  whom  he  appointed,  each  and 
every  one  of  whom  was  known  to  be  in  favor  of  the  experi- 
ment. Rules  were  established  by  those  commissioners. 
The  President  has  acted  in  hearty  accord  with  them,  and 
Congress  has  appropriated  $25,000  —  all  that  was  asked  by 
the  commissioners — for  the  purpose  of  carrying  their 
schemes  into  operation." 

What  more  did  the  new  party  want  ? 

"Is  it  revenue  reform?    They  have    just   nominated 


104  fOLltlCAL  OfcATOfiY. 

for  president  the  most  bigoted,  insane  and  absurd  protec- 
tionist in  the  country,  and  have  openly  and  conspicuously 
abandoned  that  question  as  an  issue  in  national  politics  by 
remitting  it  to  the  people  of  the  congressional  districts.  Is 
it  a  reduction  of  the  tariff  which  they  desire?  We  need 
organize  no  new  party  on  that  basis,  for  Congress  is  now 
reducing  the  tariff  at  least  fifty  millions  of  dollars.  Is  it 
the  payment  of  the  national  debt?  The  Republican  party 
is  paying  it  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars 
per  year.  Do  they  wish  it  paid  more  rapidly?  They  dare 
not  say  so.  Is  it  the  resumption  of  specie  payments?  We  are 
all  in  favor  of  that,  and  only  differ  in  the  manner  in  which 
specie  payments  shall  be  resumed.  Greeley  says,  'The  way 
to  resume  is  to  resume.'  Is  that  the  policy  of  the  Liberal 
party?  They  have  no  plan.  They  dare  not  name  one- 
Are  they  for  the  continuance  of  the  national  banks  or 
against  them?  They  have  not  answered;  they  dare  not 
answer.  Is  it  for  the  further  reduction  of  the  army  and 
navy?  They  have  not  said.  Our  army  is  not  now  a  de- 
cent police  force.  Our  navy  is  notoriously  inadequate  to 
the  wants  of  the  government.  Do  they  propose  to  reduce 
them  still  further?  They  dare  not  say  so,  and  the  people 
demand  an  increase  rather  than  a  diminution  of  our  naval 
strength.  Is  the  new  party  founded  upon  the  ground  of 
opposition  to  land  grants  to  railroad  companies?  On  this 
question  they  occupy  the  same  ground  that  we  do,  and 
Greeley  has  always  been  the  advocate  of  these  grants.  Is 
it  for  settling  our  foreign  quarrels  by  peaceful  arbitration? 
This  is  precisely  what,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of 
our  politics,  we  are  doing.  The  Alabama  claims  we  pro- 
pose to  settle  by  arbitration.  We  shall  thus  settle  them. 
Before  the  election  has  arrived  they  will  be  a  '  dead  issue. ' " 
The  proceedings  of  the  Cincinnati  convention  were 
subjected  to  a  scathing  criticism. 


t>OLIfICAL  ORA.fORY.  105 


"  The  shame  of  that  convention  was  in  this  :  they  were 
harmonious  on  questions  of  principle  on  which  their  differ- 
ences were  irreconcilable,  and  they  were  irreconcilable  on 
mere  questions  of  personal  preferment  which  involved  no 
principles  whatever. 

"  They  were  agreed  where  agreement  was  shameful. 
They  differed  where  differences  were  contemptible.  Thus, 
Greeley  and  Horace  White  agreed  on  the  tariff  —  where  it 
was  impossible  that  they  should  honestly  agree.  They 
differed  as  to  candidates,  where,  if  their  party  has  been 
organized  on  principle,  a  disagreement  would  have  been 
equally  shameful.  They  surrendered  principles  to  which 
they  should  have  unfalteringly  adhered,  irrespective  of 
men  or  personal  prejudices.  They  clung  to  personal  pre- 
judices, which  they  should  have  at  once  surrendered  if  their 
party  had  been  one  of  principle.  Their  harmony  was  dis- 
graceful, because  it  was  the  price  of  the  surrender  of  prin- 
ciple. Their  differences  were  contemptible,  because  they 
were  quarrels  merely  about  men.  It  is  the  first  instance  in 
the  history  of  our  politics,  where  a  new  party  signalizes  its 
entry  into  public  life  by  the  open  and  undisguised  sale  and 
abandonment  of  the  idea  which  called  it  into  being. 

"But  this  convention  met.  It  fairly  organized  on  Sun- 
day. If  it  had  carried  no  other  baggage  than  its  principles 
it  would  have  been  the  most  harmonious  convention  that 
the  world  has  ever  seen.  For  on  that  first  day  of  confer- 
ence, protectionists  avowed  their  willingness  to  go  for  free 
trade,  and  revenue  reformers  avowed  their  willingness  to 
go  for  protection  —  all  in  the  interests  of  reform.  When 
Horace  Greeley  and  David  A.  Wells  met  harmoniously  on 
the  question  of  the  tariff  we  might  well  expect  that  the 
lion  and  the  lamb  were  prepared  to  lie  down  together. 

"The  convention  declared  against  the  course  of  Con- 
gress in  its  legislation  against  the  South.  Yet  Horace 


106  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

Greeley  always  has  been,  and  is  to-day,  the  steady  advo- 
cate of  Ku-Klux  legislation.  The  platform  and  their  can- 
didate are  irreconcilable.  One  nullifies  the  other,  and 
this  convention,  while  seeking  to  organize  a  new  party, 
barters  its  principles  at  the  outset,  claims  the  support  of 
Kepublicans  for  the  only  man  in  their  party  who  has  ever 
openly  advocated  the  right  of  secession,  and  slanders  the 
memory  of  one  dear  to  the  heart  of  every  true  Republi- 
can — Abraham  Lincoln. 

"  Bitterly  opposed  to  a  protective  tariff,  the  Liberal  Re- 
publicans, so  self-styled,  have  selected  as  their  standard- 
bearer  and  their  leader  the  most  prominent  and  conspicu- 
ous opponent  of  their  doctrine  in  the  whole  country.  Op- 
posed, or  professing  to  be, with  equal  bitterness  to  the  legis- 
lation of  Congress  with  regard  to  the  Ku-Klux,  they  have 
nominated  the  principal  leader  of  the  movement  in  favor 
of  that  legislation." 

Speaking  of  Ottawa,  111.,  in  the  last  week  of  June, 
from  the  bench  of  the  circuit  court,  Mr.  Storrs  humor- 
ously alluded  to  his  occupying  there  for  the  first  time 
something  like  a  judicial  position.  lie  said :  — 

"I  have  always  spoken  here  as  an  advocate.  I  have 
addressed  the  great  constituency  of  big-hearted,  broad- 
browed  Republicans  of  La  Salle  county  as  an  advocate  ;  as 
the  advocate  of  a  great  party,  which  it  is  pretty  well  demon- 
strated is  as  strong  to-day  as  it  has  ever  been  ;  a  party 
whose  fires  are  burning  as  brightly,  whose  spirit  is  just  as 
high,  and  whose  purpose  is  just  as  resolute,  as  when  in 
1854  it  first  grappled  with  the  aggressions  of  the  slave 
power,  and  when,  in  I860,  it  triumphed  upon  the  election 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  to  the  Presidency.  It  has  a  future 
before  it,  I  think,  just  as  proud  and  noble  as  the  past  of 
its  career  and  history.  It  is  a  party  which,  if  there  was 
nothing  more  to  be  said  about  it  than  what  it  has  done  in 


POLITICAL    OUATOR*.  107 

the  interests  of  good  government  and  of  this  people,  I  should 
feel  very  loth  to  desert ;  and  least  of  all  can  I  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  is  worth  while  for  me  to  abandon  the 
Republican  party  because  I  find  here  and  there  a  few 
men  —  men  with  grievances,  men  'with  a  mission,'  men 
who  call  themselves  self-appointed  leaders  of  this  great 
movement. 

"Mr.  Sumner,  in  a  recent  speech  which  he  made  in 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  declares  substantially  that 
he  was  the  father  of  this  great  party,  that  the  credit  of  its 
paternity  belongs  to  him,  and  that  its  cradle  was  in  the  city 
of  Boston.  I  have  this  to  say  with  regard  to  our  party 
that  is  peculiar  to  it,  in  the  fullest  sense  of  that  term,  the 
Republican  party  never  had  a  leader;  it  has  not  got  a 
leader  to-day;  it  will  never  have  a  leader.  The  Republi- 
can party  was  made  up  from  the  start  of  independent  men, 
thinking  each  man  for  himself  ;  and  the  rank  and  file  of 
the  party  never  followed  one  single  step  after  the  leader- 
ship of  any  man,  where  that  man,  essaying  to  be  its  leader, 
did  not  go  in  the  direction  which  the  Republican  party 
desired  to  go.  It  has  never  had  a  series  of  platforms  writ- 
ten for  it  and  dictated  to  it  by  a  convention  ;  the  platforms 
of  the  Republican  party  have  always  been  written  in  the 
hearts  of  the  rank  and  file  long  before  they  had  been 
inscribed  upon  the  records  of  the  convention.  The  rank 
and  file  have  given  law  to  conventions,  and  they  have  never 
received  the  law  from  conventions.  Republicans  can  go  to 
sleep  at  night  perfectly  well  assured  of  what  their  princi- 
ples will  be  the  next  night,  although  a  convention  should 
in  the  meantime  assemble.  But  how  has  it  been, —  how  is 
it  to-day, —  with  the  Democratic  party  of  the  country? 
The  Democrat  goes  to  bed  to-night  in  favor  of  revenue 
reform  ;  and  he  retires  to  bed  to-morrow  night  in  favor  of 
a  high  protective  tariff.  He  does  it  because  he  has  found  in 


108  POLITICAL  OUATORY. 

the  meantime  a  convention  has  assembled,  which  tells  him 
what  he  must  believe,  and  what  he  must  not  believe.  Mr. 
Sumner  talks  about  the  leaders  of  this  great  party.  I  say 
this  to  Mr.  Sumner  upon  that  point,  that  if  he  has  any 
doubt  about  it,  I  would  like  to  have  him  and  any  other 
ambitious  man  look  up  and  down  that  great  track  of  light 
which  the  pathway  of  the  Republican  party  makes  all 
across  this  continent,  and  he  will -see  all  along  the  line  of 
its  march  that  its  course  is  strewn  with  the  carcasses 
of  its  self-appointed  leaders.  We  have  thrown  them 
overboard,  one  after  another,  and  one  after  another, 
regretting,  perhaps,  the  necessity  of  our  doing  so,  but 
at  the  same  time,  that  fact,  that  we  have  disposed 
of  a  leader,  never  has  for  a  single  instant  impeded 
the  progress  of  that  great  political  organization.  I  recol- 
lect, in  1866,  when  I  had  the  honor  of  addressing  the 
Republicans  of  La  Salle  county  in  this  place,  that  we  had 
thrown  overboard  a  whole  cargo  of  leaders,  a  president  and 
cabinet ;  and  it  operated  upon  the  party  like  a  tonic,  and 
we  were  stronger  and  clearer-headed  for  the  exercise.  I  tell 
Mr.  Sumner  —  and  as  speaking  for  the  rank  and  file  we 
may  all  tell  him,  and  all  others  similarly  disposed  — that 
the  will  of  that  great  party  is  infinitely  stronger  than  all 
the  influence  that  all  its  leaders  ever  exercised.  It  is  a 
vain  thing,  and  a  weak  and  idle  thing  for  them  to  attempt 
to  resist  it.  Mr.  Sumner  claims  its  paternity.  It  was  an 
old  doctrine  of  the  heathen  that  the  father  should  have  the 
right  under  the  law  to  kill  his  children  ;  perhaps  it  is  on 
this  basis  that  Mr.  Sumner  claims  the  fathership  of  the 
Republican  party.  My  fellow  citizens,  no  man  was  the 
father  of  the  Republican  party.  No  set  of  men  were  the 
fathers  of  the  Republican  party.  The  Republican  party, 
like  Topsy,  'bore  itself.'  It  was  the  result  of  circum- 
stances. All  the  leaders  in  the  country  could  not  have 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  109 

hurried  its  birth  one  single  instant.  All  the  politicians  on 
the  top  of  God's  green  earth  could  not  have  retarded  it  one 
single  moment.  Slavery  had  made  aggressions  on  our  ter- 
ritory ;  the  Democratic  party  were  in  favor  of  it,  and  the 
old  Whigs  did  not  oppose  it ;  therefore  the  people,  finding 
in  the  existing  parties  no  expressions  of  their  sentiments, 
organized  a  party  for  themselves.  You  might  as  well  say 
that  when  the  earth  lias  been  parched  and  dry  for  weeks, 
and  we  see  great  black  clouds  moving  up  in  the  west,  coming 
speedier  and  speedier  toward  the  zenith,  suppose  that  Mr. 
Charles  Sumner  should  stand  off,  just  as  the  cloud  reaches 
us,  and  say,  'I  order  it  to  rain;'  and  afterwards  it  does 
rain;  and  ten  years  after,  when  we  are  felicitating  ourselves 
on  the  refreshing  effects  of  that  shower,  Charles  Sumner 
says,  '  I  was  the  author  of  that  rain;  I  was  the  father  of  that 
shower  !  I  told  you,  didn't  I  say,  Let  it  rain,  and  didn't 
it  rain?'  'Oh, 'we  say  back  to  Mr.  Sumner,  'the  cloud 
was  rising,  and  your  little  hand  could  not  stop  it;  it  was 
charged  with  moisture;  the  earth  was  dry;  and  God  Al- 
mighty, that  made  great  natural  laws,  made  it  rain,  and 
you  are  altogether  an  insignificant  trifle  in  his  hands.' 
Mr.  Sumner  bring  on  that  tremendous  storm  that  in  1854 
swept  over  this  whole  country  like  a  whirlwind  !  Why, 
he  would  have  been  borne  on  the  wings  of  that  wind  as 
easily  as  ever  a  feather  was  floated  on  the  breeze.  If  he  or 
anybody  else  had  undertaken  to  stop  it,  they  had  better 
have  been  in  a  boat  of  stone,  with  sails  of  lead,  and  oars  of 
iron,  the  wrath  of  God  for  a  gale,  and  hell  the  nearest  port ! 
"  He  the  father  of  the  Republican  party!  He  has  given 
his  dates,  and  says  the  19th  of  September,  1854,  he  chris- 
tened it,  at  Boston.  He  quotes  his  words,  where  he  used 
the  word  '  Republican '  as  applying  to  this  great  organiza- 
tion, and  claims  that  that  was  the  first  instance  where  it 
was  used 


110  POLITICAL  OUATORY. 

"  If  any  place  was  the  cradle  of  the  Republican  party, 
that  place  was  Ottawa,  111.  If  any  man  was  the  father  of 
the  Republican  party,  that  man  was  E.  S.  Leland,  for  sixty 
days  before  Charles  Sumner  made  his  speech  in  Boston, 
Judge  E.  S.  Leland  made  a  speech  from  these  very  steps, 
and  introduced  a  series  of  resolutions  in  which  he  pro- 
claimed the  will  of  the  people  of  Illinois,  and  named  that 
great  organization  the  Republican  party  of  America.  If 
the  honor  is  anywhere,  that  is  where  it  belongs.  If  we 
are  to  have  Kistory  of  this  business,  let  history  tell  the 
truth.  I  do  not  know  whether  Judge  Leland  was  ahead 
of  everybody  else  or  not.  He  was  two  months  ahead  of 
Charles  Sumner;  and  in  the  meantime  the  party  had  grown 
so  strong  and  so  powerful  that  the  uses  a-nd  purposes  of 
Charles  Sumner,  even  as  wet  nurse,  might  with  entire 
safety  have  been  dispensed  with. 

He  then  answered  the  "  liberal "  objections  to  the 
administration  of  affairs  by  the  Republican  party,  as  he 
had  done  in  his  Springfield  speech,  and  proceeded  to 
dispose  of  Mr.  Sumner's  objections  to  General  Grant: 

"  Great  objections  were  made  to  General  Grant,  but  I 
prefer  going  to  the  people — to  the  rank  and  file — and  judg- 
ing General  Grant  precisely  according  to  the  results  and 
what  he  has  achieved.  Men  come  to  me  with  pallid  faces  and 
with  trembling  nerves  and  say,  *  Great  God,  this  country 
is  all  going  to  pieces!'  Says  I,  ( What's  the  matter?' 
'  Why,  Grant  has  been  four  weeks  at  Long  Branch! '  Per- 
haps he  has;  I  am  disposed  to  be  candid;  he  has  been 
there;  but,  my  fellow-citizens,  let  us  treat  Grant  as  we 
treat  everybody  else,  not  better,  and  no  worse.  Give  him 
credit  for  what  he  has  done,  and  charge  him  for  his 
defaults.  Keepthe  books  as  you  please,  either  in  double 
or  single  entry,  and  how  will  it  figure  up?  Charge  him 
with  four  weeks  at  Long  Branch,  but  give  him  credit  for 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  Ill 

four  weeks  at  Vicksburg.  Charge  him  with  three  days 
behind  a  trotting  horse  at  Central  Park,  but  give  him 
credit  for  a  week  at  Chattanooga.  Charge  him  with  a 
week  at  Chicago,  but  give  him  credit  for  a  week  a  Fort 
Donelson.  Charge  him  with  a  trip  into  Pennsylvania,  but 
give  him  credit  for  Appomattox.  Go  and  charge  it  all  up; 
there  is  enough  of  patriotic  achievement  still  left  to  the 
credit  of  General  Grant  to  stop  the  mouths  of  all  the  liberal 
parties  that  the  sun  will  ever  shine  upon. 

"  Mr.  Sumner,  in  his  essay  in  the  Senate,  says  that  a  mili- 
tary man  never  has  made  a  successful  civilian.  He  cites  his- 
tory to  prove  it;  and  if  Charles  is  great  in  anything,  he  is 
great  in  his  history.  He  cites  the  cases  of  Frederick  the 
Great,  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  and  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton. His  proposition  is  that  a  great  military  chieftanmust 
of  necessity  and  for  that  reason  be  a  failure  in  civil  life;  and 
he  cites  these  three  cases.  In  the  first  place,  suppose  I 
admit  his  instances  are  in  point,  his  logic  is  bad.  The 
instances  are  not  sufficiently  numerous;  you  cannot  prove 
a  general  rule  by  three  instances.  I  put  against  him  Will- 
iam the  Silent,  Oliver  Cromwell,  and  George  Washington 
and  Charles  Sumner's  illustrations  are  all  gone  to  pieces. 
My  illustrations  are  as  many  as  his,  and  prove  just  as  much 
as  his  do.  But  they  are  not  in  point.  Frederick  the  Great 
was  the  greatest  civil  leader  the  Prussian  nation  ever  had ; 
it  is  to  him  their  system  of  education  is  due.  What  was 
the  matter  with  the  Duke  of  Marlborough?  A  great  mili- 
tary chieftain,  it  is  true;  a  wonderful  success  in  that  capa- 
city, and  a  failure  as  a  civilian.  Why?  Did  he  fail  as  a 
civilian  because  he  was  a  great  military  man?  No;  he  failed 
as  a  civilian  because  he  could  not  stop  in  one  party  thirty 
days  at  a  time;  because  he  was  more  like  a  'Liberal  Repub- 
lican* than  any  man  that  lived  in  the  British  Empire; 
because  in  the  morning  he  attended  a  convention  to  keep 


112  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

in  the  reigning  dynasty,  and  the  same  evening  he  attended 
another  convention  to  bring  over  the  pretender.  Marl- 
borough  was  great  as  a  military  man  because  -he  was  like 
Grant;  he  was  a  fizzle  and  a  dead  failure  as  a  civilian 
because  he  was  like  Schurz;  he  was  a  failure  as  a  civilian  be- 
cause nobody  could  trust  him  and  nobody  would  trust  him. 
The  proposition  amounts  to  this,  that  a  great  military  man 
and  a  brave  man  is  a  poor  President,  and  therefore  the 
converse  of  the  proposition  must  be  true  —  that  a  poor 
general  and  a  coward  must  be  a  good  President.  There- 
fore I  suppose  they  have  nominated  Horace  Greeley.  If 
that  is  so,  he  fills  the  whole  bill  and  has  all  the  accom- 
plishments. 

"It  is  insisted  that  Grant  can't  make  a  speech.  I 
think  he  can;  for  I  think  the  speeches  that  are  going  to 
be  remembered  in  the  history  of  this  world  are  not  the 
mere  words  which  we  utter  in  halls  like  this,  not  the  mere 
essays  which  we  write,  but  after  all  they  are  the  deeds 
which  men  do.  The  world,  three  thousand  years  ago,  had 
forgotten  all  that  the  old  Egyptians  had  ever  written  about 
architecture,  and  all  that  the  old  Egyptians  had  ever  said; 
but  there,  on  those  desert  plains  of  Egypt,  stand  those 
mighty  pyramids,  witnesses  for  all  time  to  come  of  what 
the  old  Egyptains  accomplished.  We  have  all  forgotten 
what  John  Brown  said;  who  remembers  what  John  Brown 
wrote?  Who  will  ever  forget  what  John  Brown  did?  And 
while  John  Brown's  body  lies  moldering  in  the  ground, 
isn't  his  soul  a-marching  on?  You  may  take,  if  you  please, 
or  let  Mr.  Sumner  and  Mr.  Schurz  select  for  themselves, 
the  greatest  speeches  that  either  of  them  has  ever  made, 
write  them  in  letters  of  living  flame  right  against  the  whole 
sky,  and  put  by  the  side  of  them  the  single  word  '  Appo- 
mattox/  and  behold,  how  in  that  magnificent  presence  the 
flame  of  Charles  Simmer's  speech  will  pale  their  inef- 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  113 

fectual  fires.  The  world  will  never  forget  what  U.  S. 
Grant  has  done;  the  world  will  soon  cease  to  remember 
what  Charles  Sumner  has  said.  I  would  detract  nothing 

o 

from  the  merits  of  that  accomplished  statesman;  I  concede 
his  magnificent  endowments;  I  concede  his  wonderful 
acquirements;  but  this  great  party  of  ours,  which  has,  as 
1  believe,  the  custody  of  the  interests  of  good  government 
for  all  the  years  to  come  in  its  hands,  is  infinitely  better, 
and  holier,  and  greater,  and  more  valuable,  than  any  man; 
and  much  as  I  revere  the  name  of  Charles  Sumiier,  I  would 
see  him  sink  out  of  sight  into  utter  forgetfulness,  into  the 
deepest  oblivion,  rather  than  I  would  see  one  single  star  on 
the  banner  of  this  great  party  pale  its  fires.  For,  think 
what  it  has  done.  In  twelve  short  years  of  time  it  has 
eclipsed  a  thousand  years  of  the  most  magnificent  history 
that  this  world  has  ever  seen.  It  has  taken  four  millions 
of  chattels,  and  lifted  them  from  the  night  and  barbarism 
of  slavery  into  the  clear,  pure  atmosphere  of  American 
citizenship.  It  has  taken  a  chattel  and  made  him  a  sena- 
tor. It  has  taken  personal  property  and  made  it  members 
of  congress.  It  is  the  great,  progressive  party  of  mankind. 
I  cannot  but  sometimes  sympathize  with  that  conservative 
spirit  that  looks  lovingly  and  affectionately  back  upon 
the  past;  but  while  I  sympathize  with  it  I  cannot  go  with 
it.  I  know  the  picture  that  it  has  presented  of  the  good 
old  times  when  the  slaveholder  ruled  is  a  pretty  one;  the 
slaveholder  sitting  like  a  patriarch,  as  they  used  to  tell  us, 
with  his  broad-brim  out  on  his  piazza,  and  his  little  chat- 
tels, male  and  female,  dancing  on  the  green  before  him. 
It  is  a  pretty  picture;  but  this  is  the  one  which  the  Repub- 
lican party  draws  —  no  longer  chattels,  male  or  female; 
nothing,  thank  God,  on  this  continent  but  free  men  and 
free  women;  by  the  mighty  exertions  of  this  great  party, 
the  architects  of  their  own  fortunes.  You  seev  no  longer 


114  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

the  negro  child,  boy  and  girl,  dancing  upon  the  green;  you 
see  them  at  the  school-house,  at  the  workshop,  at  the  bench, 
on  the  farm,  each,  thank  God,  his  own  master,  each  carv- 
ing out  his  own  fortune  for  the  future.  There  may  be  less 
poetry  in  it,  but  how  much  more  magnificent  it  is  in  the 
story  it  tells  for  our  common  humanity?  How  much  more 
magnificent  it  is  in  the  exalted  and  lofty  patriotism  which 
it  typifies! 

Grant  cannot  speak;  he  is  no  orator,  as  Brutus  was; 
and  he  has  appointed  his  relatives  to  office.  I  suppose  it 
was  necessary  for  him  to  appoint  somebody's  relatives.  I 
do  not  care  who  he  makes  collector  of  customs,  nor  who 
he  appoints  assessor;  it  is  somebody's  relative;  and  by  and 
by,  when  the  history  of  this  great  captain  comes  to  be 
written,  let  us  think  what  history  will  say.  I  suppose 
that  history  will  tell  us  nothing  about  how  he  started  from 
Galena  to  fight  at  Fort  Donelson,  about  how  he  took  these 
great  western  armies  swinging  around  from  Cairo  to  the 
sea;  and  how  that  great,  silent  soldier  saved  the  nation  the 
priceless  treasure  of  free  government  for  all  ages  to  come. 
Perhaps  the  historian  will  say  nothing  about  that.  He 
will  omit  Appomattox,  he  will  omit  Spotsylvania;  he  will 
omit  the  bloody  record  of  the  days  in  the  wilderness  in 
what  he  has  to  say;  but  he  will  tell  you  how  this  man 
found  his  old  father  a  postmaster  when  he  was  elected, 
and  kept  him  there;  he  will  tell  he  was  at  Long  Branch 
four  weeks;  he  will  tell  you  that  somebody  complained  that 
he  received  a  gift.  Stop  and  think  how  mean,  how  trivial, 
how  utterly  and  altogether  unworthy  in  the  record  which 
history  shall  make  up,  when  the  mists  of  passion  and  preju- 
dice shall  have  cleared  away,  will  all  these  things  seem  to 
be  !  They  are  just  as  small,  and  just  as  trivial,  and  just 
as  mean,  and  just  as  ungrateful,  and  just  as  dirty  to-day 
as  they  will  be  a  hundred  years  hence;  but  in  the  light  of 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  115 

history,  how  small,  will  be  more  clearly  apparent,  perhaps, 
than  to-day.  But  when  the  record  of  his  name  comes  to 
be  written,  when  the  great  journey  of  that  silent  soldier 
is  completed,  he  will  march  down  the  aisles  of  time  hand 
in  hand  with  our  great  martyred  President,  Abraham 
Lincoln;  and,  standing  on  the  highest  summit  of  earthly 
eminence  and  heroic  achievement,  the  whole  world  will 
hail  and  salute  him." 

Mr.  Greeley's record  was  reviewed  as  follows: 
*?  Opposed  to  him  is  Horace  Greeley.  Now,  we  all 
know  Horace  Greeley.  Wo  all  know  what  he  has  been  in 
politics,  and  we  all  know  what  he  is  in  politics  to-day.  I 
have  no  terms  of  opprobrium  to  apply  to  him ;  no  denun- 
ciating  epithets  to  use  against  him.  I  appeal  hurriedly 
and  briefly  to  his  record,  and  let  his  record  speak;  and  his 
record  is  all  the  more  damaging,  and  his  unfit  ness  for  the 
great  place  for  which  he  is  nominated  all  the  more  con- 
spicuous, when  I  concede,  as  for  the  purpose  of  the  argu- 
ment I  will  do,  that  he  is  honest. 

"In  1858  he  signalized  himself  in  this  state  by  inter- 
fering in  our  senatorial  election,  and  attempting  to  dictate 
to  the  Republicans  of  the  state  of  Illinois  that  they  should 
throw  Abraham  Lincoln  overboard  and  return  Stephen  A. 
Douglas  to  the  United  States  senate.  In  1860  he  made 
his  advent  in  Chicago  as  a  delegate  to  the  National  Con- 
vention from  the  state  of  Oregon.  He  came  there,  not 
for  the  purpose  of  fulfilling  any  great  mission,  but  he  came 
there  to  gratify  a  spite  which  he  entertained  against 
William  II.  Seward,  for  whom  his  whole  state  was  unani- 
mous, and  voted  48£  times  for  Edward  Bates  as  President 
of  the  United  States.  We  all  know  how,  through  those 
days  which  preceded  the  war,  how  vigorously,  bravely  and 
courageously  he  talked,  how  he  denounced  the  accursed 
slave-power;  how  he  urged  all  young  men  to  war  to  the 


116  POLITICAL  OKATORY. 

knife  against  it,  if  need  be;  but  when  the  final  hour  of 
need  came,  when,  having  urged  it  on  the  stump,  in 
Congress,  and  at  the  polls,  then,  when  the  supreme  moment 
of  trial  came,  and  the  question  was  submitted  to  the  last 
court  to  which  these  questions  are  ever  taken  —  the  arbi- 
trament of  war,  when  our  ranks  were  being  filled  up,  and 
we  looked  around  for  the  great  leader  whose  clarion  voice 
had  for  ten  years  shouted  us  on,  where  did  we  find  him  ? 
Was  Horace  Greeley  there  ?  We  saw  him,  with  tail  down 
and  ears  pinned  back,  cutting  for  the  brush,  and  the  first 
thing  that  Horace  Greeley  recommended  when  the  hour 
of  trouble  finally  reached  us  was  that  our  '  Southern  sisters 
should  be  permitted  to  depart  in  peace/  I  shall  not  stop 
here  to  read  extracts;  I  shall  not  stop  to  discuss  whether 
the  advice  was  wise  or  unwise  ;  but  suppose  that  we  had 
taken  Horace  Greeley's  advice.  Suppose  that  in  1860  his 
advice  had  been  followed,  and  Bates  had  been  nominated 
for  President  instead  of  Abraham  Lincoln  ;  suppose  his 
advice  had  been  taken  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Avar,  when  the 
clouds  began  for  the  first  time  to  roll  threateningly  up  in 
the  sky;  if  we  had  taken  Horace  Greeley's  advice  at  that 
moment  we  would  have  been  to-day  a  disgraced,  broken, 
shamed  and  humilated  nation. 

'  I  will  follow  him  a  little  further.  There  was  dif- 
ferent stuff,  thank  God,  in  this  people  than  in  Horace 
Greeley.  They  resolved  that  what  he  had  said  on  the 
stump,  and  what  they  had  declared  at  the  polls,  should  be 
carried  out,  and  that  this  nation,  which  was  worth  talking 
for,  was  worth  fighting  for.  They  fought  for  it,  and  they 
saved  it.  Finding  that  his  advice  was  not  taken,  you  all 
remember  how  he  wrote  his  most  intemperate  '  On  to 
Richmond'  call,  and  finally,  after  our  arms  had  been 
defeated  at  Bull  Run,  he  penned  at  the  top  of  an  article, 
*  Just  This  Once,'  and  begged  pardon  of  the  people,  whom 


POLITICAL  CKATOKY.  11? 

he  was  afraid  he  had  betrayed,  and  promised  never  to  do 
so  any  more.  By  and  by  he  got  courageous  again,  and 
before  the  proper  moment  had  arrived,  he  insisted  in  an 
impudent  letter  to  Abraham  Lincoln  that  the  slaves  must 
be  all  at  once  emancipated.  You  remember  how  Lincoln 
answered  that  letter.  Down  in  the  mouth  again,  he 
insisted  that  if  Lee  watered  his  horses  in  the  river  Dela- 
ware we  should  cry  quits,  and  give  up  the  contest;  sur- 
render our  national  integrity,  and  recognize  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Southern  Confederacy.  We  didn't  do  it. 
Lee  did  water  his  horses  in  the  waters  of  the  Delaware, 
and  the  silent  soldier  who  makes  no  speeches  answered  that 
piece  of  southern  bravado  on  the  4th  of  July,  1863,  by  send- 
ing us  the  intelligence  that  he  had  taken  the  stronghold  of 
Vicksburg,  captuied  30,000  rebel  prisoners  of  war,  and 
opened  the  Mississippi  from  St.  Paul  to  the  Gulf.  On 
that  same  day,  on  the  blood-stained  field  of  Gettysburg, 
Lee,  who  had  watered  his  horses  in  the  river  Delaware,  was 
driven  back  defeated  and  discomfited,  the  backbone  of 
the  rebellion  was  broken,  and  a  check  put  upon  its  career 
from  which  it  never  recovered. 

"That  is  not  all.  A  call  was  made  for  troops,  and,  of 
course,  Greeley  flunked  again.  In  18(54  he  inaugurated 
peace  negotiations —  with  whom  ?  "With  Colorado  Jewett, 
probably  the  champion  free-lunch  eater  of  the  American 
continent;  a  man  known  all  over  the  country  as  a  chronic 
dead-beat.  He  was  the  negotiator  with  whom  Horace 
Greeley  opened  negotiations  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
peace;  and  after  letters  had  passed  between  him  and  Jewett, 
he  writes  to  the  President,  calling  his  attention  to  the  fact, 
and  using  this  expression: — 'Mr.  President,  I  venture  to 
remind  you  that  our  broken,  bleeding,  dying,  and  almost 
bankrupt  country  cries  for  peace.'  Lincoln  at  once  upon 
the  reception  of  that  letter,  wrote  him  back  that  if  there 


118  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

was  anybody  anxious  to  treat  for  peace  on  the  basis  of  a 
restored  Union  and  the  abandonment  of  slavery,  to  send 
him  or  bring  him  to  him,  and  he  was  ready  to  treat  upon 
that  basis.  You  remember  the  course  which  the  negotia- 
tions took.  It  turned  out  that  the  commissioners  were  not 
authorized.  Finally  Greeley  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Presi- 
dent stating  that  these  men  in  Canada  were  not  authorized 
to  treat,  but  they  thought  they  might  get  somebody 
who  would  be,  and,  accordingly,  the  President  wrote  that 
famous*  To  Whom  it  May  Concern 'paper,  stating  precisely 
the  same  terms  embraced  in  the  first  letter  he  addressed  to 
Greeley.  Greeley  withheld  from  the  "rebel  commissioners 
that  the  President  had  in  the  first  instance  made  that  the 
only  basis  on  which  negotiations  could  be  conducted  ;  and 
when  Clay  and  Holcombe  made  a  complaint  that  the  Presi- 
dent had  seduced  them  into  the  belief  that  the  negotiations 
might  be  made  freely  and  without  terms,  Greeley  joined 
with  them  and  said  the  negotiations  had  been  brought  to 
an  end  because  the  President  had  abandoned  the  basis  on 
which  they  had  been  inaugurated.  Now,  I  do  not  care  so 
much  that  in  the  course  of  these  negotiations  he  recom- 
mended that  $400,000,000  be  paid  for  the  slaves ;  I  do  not 
care  so  much  that  he  blundered  in  opening  them  with 
Colorado  Jewett ;  I  do  not  care  so  much  that  he  misled  the 
rebel  commissioners  themselves ;  but  I  do  care,  as  it 
behooves  every  Illinoisan  who  holds  the  good  name  and 
memory  of  Abraham  Lincoln  dear  in  his  heart,  —  I  do  care 
that  on  that  occasion  Horace  Greeley  joined  with  the  rebel 
commissioners  -and  placed  Abraham  Lincoln  in  a  false 
position  before  the  country.  Abraham  Lincoln  had  made 
no  change  of  base;  the  first  letter  he  sent  announced  the 
only  basis  on  which  these  negotiations  could  be  conducted; 
he  asked  Greeley  to  show  that  first  letter  to  the  com- 
missioners in  order  that  there  might  be  no  mistake  about 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  119 

it,  and  you  remember  how  we  were  all  dumbfounded  when 
a  portion  of  that  correspondence  was  published,  how  we 
saw  no  escape  for  the  President,  and  how.it  seemed  to  us 
and  to  the  whole  country  that  Lincoln  had  been  trifling  with 
these  commissioners,  had  abandoned  the  position,  and  had 
misled  and  betrayed  them;  and  when,  in  order  to  set  him- 
self right  before  the  world,  Abraham  Lincoln  asked 
Horace  Greeley  for  the  privilege  of  publishing  the  whole 
correspondence,  merely  omitting  the  phrase,  'our  bleeding, 
bankrupt  and  flying  country/  because  he  said  it  might  dis- 
courage and  dishearten  the  people  at  the  North, —  when  he 
asked  that  his  good  name  might  be  vindicated  before 
thirty-seven  millions  of  people,  Horace  Greeley  refused. 
Horace  Greeley  joined  in  the  cry  against  him,  and  by  that 
refusal  placed  Lincoln  in  a  false  position  before  this  coun- 
try for  two  years;  and  not  until  the  danger  had  passed,  not 
until  the  storms  of  war  had  rolled  away,  was  the  cor- 
respondence published,  and  the  name  and  good  fame  of 
our  martyred  President  vindicated. 

"They  tell  us  the  war  is  finished;  perhaps  it  is.  I  ask 
every  sincere  Republican  in  this  house  to-night  what  he 
believes  would  be  the  result,  provided  we  had  at  the  next 
assembling  of  Congress  a  Democratic  majority  in  either  or 
both  branches  of  our  national  Congress.  They  need  not  un- 
dertake to  repeal  the  fifteenth  amendment  or  the  fourteenth, 
but  you  and  I  know  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  unfriendly 
legislation.  You  know  as  well  as  I  —  there  is  not  a  man 
in  this  house  that  does  not  know  it— that,  with  a  Demo- 
cratic majority  in  either  branch  of  our  national  Congress, 
you  might  pile  up  facts  mountains  high,  showing  that  the 
new  freeman  had  been  outraged,  insulted  and  abused,  and 
they  would  not  see  the  facts.  The  time  has  not  come  when 
it  is  safe  to  withdraw  from  the  hands  of  this  great  party 
the  power  with  which,  for  years,  you  have  entrusted  it.  It 


120  POLITICAL  ORATOUY. 

is  a  question  which  we  must  regulate  and  decide  as  we  do 
all  other  questions;  we  must  determine  what  men  will  do 
in  the  future  by  what  they  have  done  in  the  past. 

"  If  there  should  come  to  the  cashier  of  the  bank  in  this 
city  two  applicants  for  the  office  of  teller,  both  of  them 
with  their  platforms  precisely  alike,  embodying  the  ten 
commandments,  Christ's  sermon  on  the  mount,  and  every- 
thing that  is  good  in  morals  and  business,  still  the  cashier, 
I  take  it,  would  not  decide  upon  these  applications  merely 
on  the  platforms  which  these  men  made;  he  would  inquire 
into  their  history;  and  if  he  found  that  one  fellow  had 
robbed  his  employer's  till,  that  his  credit  was  bad  and  his 
morals  weak,  and  the  other  had  never  been  suspected  of 
any  offense,  he  would  select  the  man  whose  record  had  been 
good  in  the  past,  notwithstanding  the  old  thief  might  say 
he  had  taken  a  'new  departure/  and  promised  never  to  do 
so  any  more.  '  I  am  glad  to  hear  you  have  taken  a  new 
departure;  I  hope  your  platform  is  all  right;  I  think  your 
platform  is,  but  my  dear  sir,  I  must  let  you  depart  first 
with  somebody  else's  money  than  my  own.  Everybody 
who  asks  us  for  political  position,  for  power,  for  trust,  can 
see  that  reputation  is  not  a  dead  issue.  The  reputation  of 
any  party  which  solicits  power  is  always  in  issue,  and  it 
will  always  be  in  issue. 

"Now,  what  issues  do  they  present  to  us?  Simply  two. 
In  this  liberal  platform  which  they  all  seem  so  anxious  to 
put  up,  they  clamor  for  the  one-term  principle.  I  am 
opposed  to  it,  and  so  are  you.  One  term  is  too  long  for  a 
bad  president  and  two-terms  are  not  more  than  enough 
for  a  good  one.  We  needed  no  amendment  of  the 
constitution  to  get  rid  of  James.  Buchanan  and  to  get  rid 
of  Andrew  Johnson.  We  did  not  need  any  amendment  of 
the  constitution  to  shut  off  Martin  Van  Buren,  James  K. 
Polk,  and  the  rest  of  them;  and  the  fact  that  we  elected 


POLITICAL  ORATOHY  1M 

Abraham  Lincoln  because  the  interests  of  the  nation 
demanded  it  is  an  eternally  convincing  proof  of  the  futility 
of  such  a  plea  as  that  the  whole  of  the  people  shall  be  tied 
hand  and  foot  by  a  clause  of  that  kind  in  our  organic  law. 
I  believe  thirty-seven  millions  of  people  are  quite  compe- 
tent to  determine  whether  they  want  a  man  for  president 
the  second  time  or  not.  They  have  always  been  able  to  do 
it,  and  all  the  precedents  of  our  history  have  justified  their 
conduct  whenever  they  have,  as  they  have  done  in  many 
instances,  quietly  thrown  him  overboard. 

"But  they  tell  us  they  are  also  in  favor  of  local  self- 
government.  Now,  what  does  local  self-government  mean? 
Why,  it  is  the  old  exploded  theory  of  state  sovereignty, 
and  nothing  else  under  heaven.  Read  the  Democratic 
speeches  that  are  made  at  their  meetings,  indorsing  Greeley 
and  favoring  his  nomination  by  the  convention,  and  elec- 
tion. It  is  the  same  talk  we  heard  exactly,  all  through  the 
war,  of  tyranny  and  oppression,  and  the  iron  heel  of  the 
tyrant.  My  fellow-citizens,  go  home  to-night  and  ask 
yourselves,  in  the  presence  of  your  own  conscience,  and  in 
the  presence  of  God,  whether  you  feel  you  have  been  tyran- 
ized  over.  Ask  yourselves  whether  this  magnificent  spec- 
tacle which  is  now  presented  is  the  result  of  tyranny — that 
of  a  great  people,  led  as  they  have  been  by  the  steady  hand 
of  this  great  captain,  encountering  a  mighty  volume  of 
debt,  and  reducing  that  debt  hundreds  of  millions  of  dol- 
lars, and  at  the  same  time  reducing  the  burden  of  their  tax- 
ation in  equal  proportions.  Think,  too,  how  our  green- 
backs are  appreciating;  think  how  our  bonds  are  appreciat- 
ing in  the  markets  of  the  world;  think  how  our  credit  has 
advanced;  think  how  prosperity  prevails  throughout  all  our 
borders;  and  then,  look  at  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  thank  God  that  he  is  no  genius,  that  he  is 
simply  a  plain,  honest,  capable,  faithful  man,  true  to  the 


122  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

interests  of  the  great  people  by  whom  he  was  placed  in  his 
position. 

"  He  declared  to  you  at  the  outset,  '  I  shall  have  no 
policy  opposed  to  the  will  of  the  people/  How  did  he 
illustrate  it?  He  thought,  early  in  his  administration,  that 
the  interests  of  this  country  demanded  the  acquisition  of 
the  island  of  San  Domingo.  I  thought  it  did  not;  the  most 
of  you  thought  it  did  not;  I  have  seen  occasion  to  change  my 
opinion  upon  that  subject;  but  finding  that  the  will  of  the 
people  was  against  it,  General  Grant  sends  his  manly  and 
noble  message  to  Congress,  and  says,  f  I  thought  that  the 
interests  of  our  trade,  our  commerce,  and  our  nation  de- 
manded the  acquisition  of  that  island;  I  thought  not  only  for 
commercial  purposes,  and  in  view  of  future  complications 
with  foreign  powers,  we  ought  to  have  it,  but  in  and  of 
itself  we  ought  to  have  it.  I  thought  so  then,  and  I  think 
so  still.  I  sent  my  commissioners,  among  the  best  men  in 
the  country  there,  and  they  have  reported  as  I  thought. 
You,  my  fellow  citizens,  do  not  want  it;  I  only  want  it  for 
you;  if  you  do  not  want  it,  do  not  have  it;  I  have  no  policy 
opposed  to  the  will  of  the  people/ 

"  I  tell  you,  in  the  years  that  are  to  come,  standing  up 
against  all  the  glittering  rhetoric  of  mere  senatorial  ora- 
tors, that  simple  state  paper,  magnificent  in  its  self-deny- 
ing patriotism,  will  stand  out  like  a  great  gigantic  pyra- 
mid, challenging  the  admiration  and  gratitude  of  mankind. 

"  Yet,  after  having  done  what  he  has  done,  and  accom- 
plished what  he  has  accomplished,  it  is  insisted  that  he  must 
be  thrown  overboard,  and  Horace  Greeley  substituted  in 
his  place.  It  is  claimed  that  he  has  violated  his  faith  with 
the  people  in  the  injudicious  appointments  he  has  made.  I 
am  here  making  no  apologies;  I  am  not  here  as  a  partisan, 
either;  but  I  believe  that  there  is,  deep  down  in  the  popu- 
lar heart  of  the  people,  a  sense  of  fair  play  and  of  com- 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  123 

mon  decent  treatment,  that  will  vindicate,  and  protect  and 
defend  him;  that  same  great  nation  that  has  rallied  around 
our  martyred  President  as  with  cords  of  steel,  will  rally 
around  their  living  captain  as  with  flames  and  circlets  of 
fire,  and  protect,  and  justify,  and  care  for,  and  defend 
him.  I  ask  you  now  to  remember,  whenever  there  has 
been,  in  the  history  of  the  politics  of  this  country,  charges 
so  malignant  and  so  base,  and  epithets  so  vituperative  as 
have  been  employed  against  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  you  would 
stop  and  ask  yourselves,  '  What  has  this  man  done? '  Has  he 
broken  open  a  bank?  Has  he  stricken  down  his  neighbor  in 
the  dead  hour  of  the  night?  Has  he  robbed  anybody?  Of 
what  offense  is  he  guilty?  "What  crime  has  he  committed? ' 
Run  through  the  whole  catalogue  of  crimes,  and  still  the 
denunciations  that  have  been  poured  upon  him  have  been 
all  too  severe;  and  we  answer  and  say  :  '  He  has  done 
nothing  except  to  save  this  nation/  We  will  save  it  again, 
and  save  it,  my  fellow  citizens,  through  him.  The  con- 
test upon  which  we  are  just  entering  will  be  one  of  the 
most  animaied  which  has  ever  occurred  in  the  political 
history  of  this  country;  the  same  old  party  stands  up  as 
strong,  powerful  and  bold  as  it  ever  did;  its  banner  is 
lifted  just  as  high;  it  keeps  step  to-day,  as  it  always  has 
kept  step,  to  the  glorious  music  of  the  nation;  it  knows  no 
faltering,  it  knows  no  shrinking  of  the  spirit,  no  trembling 
of  the  nerve  ;  and  as  we  come  into  line,  now  at  the  open- 
ing of  this  campaign,  here  together  in  this  great  and  mag- 
nificent county  of  La  Salle,  let  the  old  fires  burn,  all  up 
and  down  the  land,  and  let  the  word  go  all  up  and  down 
the  line,  let  the  old  spirit  rise  up  in  every  heart,  and  let 
the  old  order  be  given  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of 
the  continent,  'Forward  ! '  and  victory  is  assuredly  ours." 
Mr.  Storrs  spoke  the  following  week  at  Freeport, 
going  over  the  same  ground  as  at  Ottawa,  and  in  pretty 


124  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

much  the  same  form.  He  commenced  by  referring  to 
a  Eepublican  meeting  he  had  addressed  there  in  1861, 
and  another  in  1864-,  when  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a 
candidate  for  a  second  term.  He  then  gave  a  running 
history  of  the  Eepublican  party  from  its  organization, 
showing  that  the  party  had  religiously  performed  every 
promise  which  it  had  ever  made,  and  kept  its  faith  with 
the  people.  He  went  on  to  say  : 

"The  platform  of  the  so-called  'Liberals'  calls  for 
nothing  which  the  people  demand  and  which  the  Ee- 
publican party  is  not  abundantly  able  to  carry  out.  The 
Liberals  demand  the  payment  of  the  national  debt;  but 
the  Eepublican  party  is  paying  it  at  the  rate  of  one  hun- 
dred millions  of  dollars  per  year.  They  demand  the  re- 
duction of  taxation,  but  the  Eepublican  party  has  already 
reduced  taxation  over  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars. 
They  demand  the  resumption  of  specie  payments,  but  the 
policy  of  the  Eepublican  party  has  so  far  strengthened  the 
national  credit,  that  we  are  hastening  toward  specie  re- 
sumption as  rapidly  as  the  business  interests  of  the  nation 
will  justify.  They  demand  the  equality  of  all  our  citizens  be- 
fore the  law,  but  to  the  Eepublican  party  alone  is  the  na- 
tion and  the  world  indebted  for  the  fact  that  political  in- 
equalities have  ceased  to  exist  in  this  country.  They  de- 
mand a  reform  of  the  civil  service,  but  fail  to  tell  us  what 
reform  they  wish,  or  how  it  shall  be  effected.  Mr.  Trum- 
bull  proposed  that  postmasters  be  elected  by  the  people; 
but  they  have  already  scouted  the  idea  as  utterly  impracti- 
cable. The  present  administration  is  the  first  and  only 
one  which  has  ever  undertaken,  in  good  faith,  to  effect 
practical  reforms  in  our  civil  service.  At  the  outset  the 
Liberals  were  loud  in  their  demand  for  a  reform  in  the 
revenues;  that  they  have  skulkingly  abandoned,  and  have 
surrendered  their  free-trade  theories  to  the  most  absurd 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  125 

protectionists  on  the  continent.  They  demand  a  restora- 
tion of  order  at  the  South;  but  the  encouragement  of  the 
Ku-Klux  is  a  poor  way  to  restore  order.  The  Republican 
party  has  restored  order  by  compelling  the  Ku-Klux  to 
behave  themselves;  and  so  long  as  they  can  be  kept  quiet 
order  will  prevail  in  the  South,  her  industries  be  de- 
veloped, and  her  prosperity  be  assured.  But  the  Liberals 
also  demand  the  one- term  principle,  and  clamor  for  the 
right  of  what  they  call  '  local  self-government/  Do  they 
establish  the  one-term  principle  by  electing  Greeley,  or 
do  they  purpose  to  remit  that  to  the  people  of  each  con- 
gressional district?  Will  they  secure  the  one-term  princi- 
ple by  an  amendment  to  the  constitution  or  by  an  act  of 
Congress  or  by  Horace  Greeley's  promise  that  he  won't  run 
again?  The  people  are  quite  competent  to  determine 
whether  they  want  a  President  for  more  than  four  years. 
When  they  don't  want  him  for  a  second  time  they  have  a 
very  plain  way  of  giving  him  notice  of  the  fact.  We 
didn't  have  to  amend  the  constitution  to  beat  Andrew 
Johnson;  nor  did  we  have  to  amend  the  constitution  to 
dispose  of  James  Buchanan.  They  wanted  Abraham 
Lincoln  a  second  time.  Greeley  and  Trumbull  and  Chase 
and  several  other  very  high-toned  gentlemen  thought  that 
one  term  was  enough;  but  as  is  usual  in  such  cases  the 
people  were  quite  competent  to  determine  that  question 
for  themselves,  and  had  their  own  way.  We  propose  to  let 
them  have  their  own  way  about  these  matters  in  the  future. 
We  think  that  one  term  would  be  too  much  for  Horace 
Greeley,  and  two  terms  is  all  we  ask  for  Grant. 

"As  to  this  point  of  local  self-government,  it  is  a  mere 
sugar-coated  method  of.  administering  the  old  '  State 
Rights '  dose.  Great  clamor  is  made  over  what  is  called 
'  centralization/ and  one  would  think  that  there  was  a  great 
deal  in  it.  The  Liberals  don't  tell  us  what  they  mean  by 


126  POLITICAL  ORATOEY. 

it.  We  are  familiar  with  the  talk,  however.  We  became 
familiar  with  it  during  the  war.  That  eminent  '  Liberal/ 
Beriah  Magoffin,  of  Kentucky,  denounced  the  first  call 
for  troops  as  '  centralization. '  Those  distinguished  '  Liber- 
als/ Fernando  Wood  and  Henry  Clay  Dean,  denounced  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  and  the  conscription  laws  as 
1  centralization.'  The  fact  is,  centralization  was  the  death 
of  secession.  As  between  the  two,  I  am  in  favor  of  enough 
centralization  to  crush  out  treason  at  home,  to  assert  our 
dignity  and  •  to  punish  our  enemies  abroad.  The  Repub- 
lican  party  has,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
country,  made  American  citizenship  a  fact.  For  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  this  country,  it  is  possible  for  a  man 
to  start  from  the  Penobscot  and  read  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  in  every  town  and  county  in  every  state  to 
the  Eio  Grande,  and  none  to  molest  or  make  him  afraid. 
All  this  clamor  about l  centralization '  is  meaningless,  unless 
it  be  shown  that  the  general  government  has  in  some  way 
or  other  transcended  its  powers  and  invaded  the  reserved 
rights  of  the  states.  Talk  is  cheap.  But  until  the  Lib- 
erals point  us  to  some  legislation,  or  to  some  act  for  which 
the  Eepublican  party  is  responsible,  of  the  character  I  have 
indicated,  we  need  bother  ourselves  very  little  about  'cen- 
tralization/ The  Republican  party  believes  that  this  gov- 
ernment is  a  union  of  the  people,  and  not  a  compact  of 
states.  It  believes  that  these  states  are  not  like  a  lot  of 
marbles  in  a  bag  which  touch  but  do  not  adhere,  but  though 
*  distinct  like  the  billows,  are  one  like  the  sea.'  For  half 
a  century  or  more  we  argued  this  question  on  the  stump, 
in  Congress,  and  in  the  courts.  We  won  in  all  of  those 
places.  Not  satisfied  with  the  decision,  the  same  men  who 
now  howl  about  ( centralization/  submitted  the  question  to 
that  tribunal  of  last  resort,  from  which  no  appeal  can  be 
taken,  the  arbitrament  of  war.  They  were  again  beaten. 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  127 

It  cost  us  three  thousand  millions  of  money,  five  hundred 
thousand  lives,  and  over  four  years  of  war  to  win  on  that 
trial.  I  am  opposed  to  a  re-trial.  Enough  of  money  and 
enough  of  lives  have  already  been  wasted  on  the  settlement 
of  that  question;  and  no  such  thin  disguise  as  'local  self- 
government  '  will  ever  seduce  us  into  the  re-opening  of  that 
subject. 

"A  great  deal  of  sentiment  is  expressed  by  these  '  Lib- 
eral '  gentlemen  over  what  they  call  the  distresses  of  the 
South,  and  much  noisy  vituperation  visited  upon  the  car- 
pet-bagger. If  under  the  new  condition  of  things  at  the 
South  bud  men  are  elected  to  office,  it  is  probably  because 
the  voters  have  made  injudicious  selections.  The  govern- 
ment can't  help  that,  unless  it  gets  up  a  new  lot  of  voters, 
or  prevents  those  from  voting  who  now  have  that  right. 
The  negro  votes  because  the  fifteenth  constitutional  amend- 
ment tells  him  that  he  may;  if  he  don't  vote  intelligently, 
it  is  because  those  '  Liberals'  who  denounce  centralization 
at  the  South,  have  kept  him  for  generations  in  ignorance. 
Intelligent  voting,  like  intelligent  workmanship,  comes  by 
practice,  and  unless  the  Liberals  favor  the  repeal  of  the  fif- 
teenth amendment,  they  should  quietly  accept  all  the  con- 
sequences that  result  from  it.  We  think  the  temporary 
evils  of  unenlightened  voting  are  much  less  serious  than 
the  permanent  damage  which  would  result  from  making 
the  negro  a  citizen  and  then  withholding  from  him  the  only 
weapon  by  which  his  rights  of  citizenship  could  be  pro- 
tected." 

At  Dixon,  a  few  weeks  later,  Mr.  Storrs  went  over 
the  same  ground  in  a  stirring  address.  After  compar- 
ing the  Republican  and  "  Liberal  "  platforms,  he  replied 
to  the  objection  raised  by  the  latter  party  to  what  they 
called  the  "  centralization  "  of  the  National  Govern- 
ment. 


128  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

"  Now,  as  to  self-government,  what  do  they  mean  by 
that?  They  generalize  by  calling  it  centralization.  What 
do  they  mean  by  that?  If  it  is  something  very  bad,  I  am 
opposed  to  it.  If  it  is  something  very  good,  I  am  in  favor 
of  it.  If  it  is  part  way  between  the  two,  I  do  not  care 
much  about  it.  I  wish  they  would  tell  me,  when  they 
use  these  words  of  fearful  import  and  thundering  sound, 
what  they  mean.  If  they  mean  that  they  are  opposed  to 
the  general  government  transcending  its  powers  and  inter- 
fering with  the  vested  rights  of  the  state  —  so  am  I  —  so 
are  all.  But  while  I  am  in  favor  of  the  rights  of  the  states, 
lam,  at  the  same  time,  in  favor  of  the  rights  of  the  nation. 
We  have  spent  $3,000,000,000  of  money,  sacrificed  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  lives,  and  had  four  years  of  war,  in 
order  to  save  this  nation  from  destruction.  I  am,  there- 
fore, in  favor  of  a  centralized  government,  so  strong  that 
there  shall  be  some  meaning  in  the  words,  '  American  citi- 
zen/ I  am  in  favor  of  its  being  so  strong  that  in  the  re- 
motest corners  of  the  globe,  whenever  the  meanest  Ameri- 
can citizens  are  molested,  trampled  upon,  or  oppressed, 
that  this  great  government  will  put  out  its  strong  arm  to 
defend  the  citizen  and  punish  the  oppressor.  And  not 
only  that,  but  that  it  will  do  the  same  with  all  its  citizens 
at  home.  I  am  in  favor  of  a  government  which,  when  the 
organic  law  has  declared  that  negroes  shall  be  voters — that 
they  shall  be  clothed  with  that  right,  and  that  Congress 
shall,  by  appropriate  legislation,  protect  and  defend  them — 
I  am  in  favor  of  a  central  power  strong  enough  to  see  to  it 
that  the  rights  so  conferred  shall  be  protected  and  the 
negro  justified  in  its  exercise;  and  whenever  that  right  is 
assailed,  as  it  was  by  the  Ku-Klux,  I  hold  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  Congress  to  see  that  it  is  defended.  But  they  say 
that  we  must  have  peace,  order,  good- will,  amnesty,  and 
the  shaking  of  hands  across  the  bloody  chasm.  I  am  in 


«  POLITICAL  ORATORY.  129 

favor  of  quiet.  I  am  in  favor  of  peace.  I  desire  to  see 
order  reign  through  all  the  borders  of  this  country,  and 
over  the  whole  earth;  but  if  you  would  restore  order,  you 
must  suppress  disorder;  if  you  would  have  peace,  you  must 
punish  the  men  who  are  violating  the  peace. 

"  Who  made  the  disorder  at  the  South  ?  Did  the  negro 
make  it?  No.  Did  the  carpet-bagger  make  it?  No.  His- 
tory has  written  it.  Men  masked,  with  blackened  faces, 
by  murder,  robbery,  pillage  and  outrage  of  every  kind,  in- 
flicted upon  these  new-made  citizens,  made  a  very  bedlam 
of  that  country.  Would  you  restore  it  by  putting  the 
Ku-Klux  in  power?  No! — put  him  down  and  make  him 
behave  himself.  When  that  legislation  was  passed  and 
the  government  clothed  with  these  powers,  order  came. 
Why?  Although  their  dispositions  had  not  been  changed, 
although  the  Ku-Klux  were  the  same  in  heart  as  they  had 
been  before,  yet  because  they  knew  there  was  a  silent 
soldier  in  the  presidential  cha'ir,  and  that  the  time  had 
come  when  there  must  be  no  nonsense,  therefore  they 
behaved  themselves.  It  is  because  this  administration  has 
done  that  that  it  is  vilified,  abused,  and  traduced  in  the 
way  it  is.  I  have  desired  to  see  the  time  come  when  you 
and  I  and  all  of  us  could  travel  wherever  we  pleased,  could 
say  what  we  desired  to  say,  or  think  what  we  desired  to 
think,  and  that  there  should  be  no  one  to  molest  us  or  make 
us  afraid.  That  time  is  coming,  but,  gentlemen,  that 
time  will  not  come  until,  in  the  prosecution  of  Ms  busi- 
ness, every  man  can  do  it  without  reference  to  the  place  of 
his  nativity." 

He  reiterated  his  former  argument  as  to  the  differ- 
ence between  platforms  and  practice,  and  illustrated 
the  political  situation  ^vith  an  apologue  which  his  audi- 
ence appreciated  and  heartily  enjoyed : 

"  This  is  also  well  illustrated  by  the  fable  of  the  wolves 


1«)0  POLITICAL  ORATORY.  • 

and  the  farmer.  A  farmer  had  been  for  years  engaged  in 
the  sheep-raising  business.  When  he  started, 'be  bought  a 
magnificent  shepherd  dog  to  watch  his  flock,  and  he  put 
it  in  office.  There  was  a  party  of  wolves  in  his  immediate 
neighborhood,  and  as  the  time  rolled  on  there  never  was 
any  cordiality  of  feeling  between  the  wolves  and  that  dog. 
The  wolf  party  gradually  got  smaller  and  smaller,  because 
the  dog  would  make  raids  on  it,  and  by  and  by  they 
dwindled  doVn  to  a  very  small  number.  There  were,  how- 
ever, a  good  many  curs  in  the  neighborhood,  and  they  de- 
termined they  would  join  this  wolf  party,  and  call  A  GREAT 
LIBERAL  MOVEMENT.  They  held  a  convention  and  resolved 
that  peace  and  amnesty  should  be  restored  between  them- 
selves, and  they  concluded  that  there  was  nothing  what- 
ever in  their  way  but  that  dog,  and  if  they  could  get  him 
out  of  the  way,  they  would  shake  hands  across  this  bloody 
chasm.  They  passed  a  series  of  resolutions  in  which  they 
declared  that  the  losses  that  had  been  caused  by  the 
former  depredations  were  atrocious,  but  that  they  were 
dead  issues.  They  said  they  had  renounced  all  the  habits 
of  their  previous  lives,  and  that  they  would,  for  the  future, 
-be  the  safest  defenders  of  these  flocks.  The  boss  wolf  went 
to  the  farmer,  *  Now/  he  says,  '  all  the  trouble  is  attrib- 
utable to  this  dog.  To  begin  with,  he  is  a  dog  you  don't 
want  around  your  premises  at  all.  He  is  unfit  for  this 
purpose.  Another  thing,  he  cannot  bark;  there  is  not  a 
stub-tailed  cur  in  the  country  but  what  can  out-bark  him. 
Another  thing/ he  says,  'five  of  that  dog's  pups  are  in 
position  here — holding  office.  He  is  guilty  of  nepotism  in 
its  very  worse  shape.'  Gentlemen,  that  was  a  pretty 'rough 
case  on  the  dog. 

"  The  farmer  says,  '  These  things  may  be  so;  I  know 
that  dog  cannot  bark  much;  but/  says  he,  'he  bites  like 
the  very  devil,  as  you  know,  1  did  u^t  want  him  for  a, 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  131 

i 

house-aog,  so  that,  as  to  his  merits  or  demerits  on  that 
point,  I  have  nothing  to  say.  As  to  these  pups,  the  clear 
truth  about  that  is  that  they  take  after  their  father,  and  I 
have  never  lost  a  sheep  out  of  my  flocks;  my  flocks  have 
prospered.  I  do  not  know  about  your  logic;  you  may 
confuse  me  as  to  that,  but  the  good  straight  way  for  me  is 
to  judge  the  future  by  the  past,  and  I  do  not  think  that  I 
shall  be  guilty  of  the  atrocious  nonsense  and  fearful  ingrati- 
tude of  removing  that  glorious  old  shepherd  dog  that  has 
grown  up  with  these  flocks  and  with  me,  and  has  never 
been  anything  except  entirely  and  forever  faithful. '" 

Contrasting  the  records  of  Grant  and  Greeley  in  the 
days  of  the  nation's  perils,  he  concluded  as  follows : 

"Let  us  be  generous;  let  us  be  just;  let  us  give  the 
credit  where  the  credit  is  due.  Let  it  never  be  said  of  us, 
in  the  years  that  are  to  come,  that  the  great  nation  that 
has  been  saved  by  the  quiet  an|j.  silent  soldier,  turned  their 
backs  upon  him  because  he  was  slandered  by  the  very  men 
whom  he  had  defeated  in  the  field  of  battle. 

"  I  believe  that  the  great  people  of  this  country  love 
Grant  as  much  as  they  ever  did  — trust  him  as  implicitly  as 
they  ever  did.  During  the  years  this  faithful  man  has  held 
the  helm  of  state  in  his  hand,  how  magnificently  the  old 
ship  of  state  has  passed  through  the  storms  we  know, 
because  we  have  been  passengers  aboard  of  h,er.  Let  us  not 
leave  the  ship.  Let  us  not  desert  Grant  —  the  old  captain; 
one  more  trip,  and  the  thing  will  be  done;  order  will  be 
restored,  our  finances  prosperous,  and  we  will  come  up  to 
those  grand  sunny  slopes  that  spread  themselves  out  in  the 
great  distance  on  the  other  side;  and  on  this  great  conti- 
nent, if  we  are  true  to  ourselves,  we  will  erect  the  most  mag- 
nificent structure  the  world  has  ever  known  —  sacred  to  the 
cause  of  human  liberty  —  its  dome  as  broad  as  the  arching 
skies,  its  base  as  extended  as  the  continent  on  which  it  is 


132  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

i 

built.  Here,  in  its  mansions,  there  will  always  be  space, 
for  all  time,  for  the  true  and  loyal  and  good  men  from  all 
corners  of  the  earth  to  meet  and  celebrate  the  triumph  of 
free  government  among  men." 

In  the  meantime,  the  Democrats  had  met  at  Balti- 
more, and,  in  the  hope  of  returning  to  power  by  the  coali- 
tion method,  had  not  only  adopted  the  platform  of  the 
Cincinnati  convention,  but  had  swallowed  their  candi- 
dates as  well.  The  tactics  of  the  Baltimore  convention 
were  doomed  to  failure,  and  the  accession  of  strength 
they  hoped  to  gain  from  the  renegade  Republicans  was 
more  than  offset  by  the  opposition  of  stiff-necked  Demo, 
crats  who  refused  to*  accept  Greeley  and  Brown  as  their 
leaders.  The  irreconcilable  Bourbons  called  a  conven- 
tion of  their  own,  which  met  at  Louisville,  Ky.,  in  Sep- 
tember, and  nominated  Charles  O'  Conor,  of  New  York, 
and  George  W.  Julian,  of*Indiana.  Both  these  gentle- 
men declined,  and  their  supporters  nevertheless  kept  on 
voting  for  them,  and  thus  nullified  the  "Liberal  "Re- 
publican vote.  The  nominees  of  the  Philadelphia  con- 
vention, Grant  and  Wilson,  were  elected. 

The  action  of  the  Baltimore  convention  gave  Mr. 
Storrs  a  splendid  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  his 
powers  of  invective  and  sarcasm,  of  which  he  was 
prompt  to  avail  himself.  His  next  campaign  speech  was 
delivered  at  Jacksonville,  111.,  on  the  12th  of  August. 
To  a  large  mass  meeting  there  he  delivered  a  powerful 
address,  reviewing  the  political  situation.  The  points 
to  which  he  directed  attention  were  always  the  same, 
but  he  had  now  a  fresh  argument  to  bring  to  bear  in 
regard  to  the  position  of  the  Cincinnati  party.  They 
were  now  embraced  in  the  ranks  of  those  who  had 
fought  to  destroy  the  Union ;  and  Mr,  Storrs  brought 


POLITICAL  ORATOfcY.  133 

the  fact  prominently  forward,  and  prefigured  the  fate 
of  the  renegades  when  the  enemv  had  no  further  use 

V 

for  them.    He  said  : 

"The  campaign  upon  which  we  are  just  entering  is,  in 
many  respects,  the  most  important,  and  in  all  respects  the 
most  extraordinary,  when  we  consider  the  manner  in  which 
it  has  thus  far  been  conducted,  that  the  country  has  ever 
seen. 

"  A  great  political  organization,  which,  in  the  short 
period  of  eighteen  years'  existence,  has  accomplished  more 
for  the  interest  of  freedom  and  good  government  than  any 
party  the  world  has  heretofore  known,  having  after  suc- 
cessive triumphs  over  its  old  and  persistent  enemy  so  far 
demoralized  it  that  it  is  rendered  powerless  for  mischief  in 
the  future,  is  now,  and  for  that  reason,  urged  to  volun- 
tarily surrender  to  the  enemy  which  it  has,  since  18GO,  never 
met  but  to  defeat. 

"  It  has  finally  been  demonstrated  that  our  old,  long- 
tinfe  adversary  cannot  defeat  us.  It  is  equally  clear  that 
there  exists  in  this  country  no  power  sufficiently  strong  to 
overcome  the  Republican  party  itself,  and  we  are  now  met 
with  the  curious  proposition  that,  because  the  Democratic 
party  is  not  able  to  beat  us,  we  should,  for  the  purposes  of 
reconciliation,  turn  in  and  defeat  ourselves.  •' '  - 

"  The  man  wha  commits  suicide  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  his  business  rival  possesses  a  much  more  conciliatory 
spirit  than  the  majority  of  mankind  can  truthfully  lay 
claim  to. 

"  Had  Grant,  after  thoroughly  penning  Lee  up  at  Ap- 
pomattox,  received  an  invitation  from  Lee  to  surrender, 
for  the  purpose  of  bringing  about  an  harmonious  state  of 
feeling  between  the  two  armies,  no  serious  fault  probably 
would  have  been  found  with  Grant  had  he  declined  the 
invitation  and  insisted,  as  he  did  insist,  that  the  van- 


134  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

quished  army  should  do  the  surrendering,  and  if  harmony 
was  what  they  were  after  they  must  be  content  to  secure  it 
in  that  way. 

"  No  ma.n  would  be  more  delighted  to  see  the  most 
brotherly  ancj  loving  state  of  feeling  established  between 
the  Republican  and  Democratic  parties  than  myself,  but, 
they  having  been  thoroughly  defeated,  it  is,  I  think,  no 
more  than  fair  for  us  to  insist  that,  if  there  is  any  surren- 
dering to  be  done,  they  should  do  it.  Had  tliey  been  left 
to  pursue  their  own  course  that  is  precisely  what  they  would 
have  done;  but  it  so  happened  that,  just  on  the  eve  of  stack- 
ing their  arms  and  settling  upon  the  terms  of  capitulation,  a 
squad  of  disappointed  captains  and  brigadiers  from  our 
own  ranks  joined  them,  and,  thus  encouraged,  the  brigadiers 
insist  that  the  rank  and  file  whom  they  have  deserted  shall 
follow  them  into  the  camp  of  the  enemy,  and  trail  their 
colors  before  the  foe  whose  surrender  they  could  easily 
have  compelled,  It  is  not  strange  that  the  enemy  thus  re- 
cruited should  immediately  resume  their  arms,  tear*  up 
their  articles  of  capitulation,  and  be  loud  in  their  demands 
for  shaking  hands  across  the  bloody  chasm.  The  wonder 
is  not  that  the  army  that  is  whipped  should  rejoice  at  the 
avenue  of  escape  that  is  thus  opened  to  them,  but  that  the 
rank  and  file  who,  after  weary  marches  and  bloody  battles, 
stand  just  upon  the  threshold  of  final  a.nd  decisive  victory, 
should  suddenly  lose  all  spirit  and  surrender  to  an  adver- 
sary no  longer  disposed  nor  able  to  encounter  them.  .  .  . 

"  There  is  no  distinctive  Liberal  party.  It  was  swal- 
lowed at  Baltimore.  Jonah  did  not  swallow  the  whale, 
but  the  whale  swallowed  Jonah;  and  the  whale  did  not 
consult  Jonah  as  to  the  time,  or  place,  or  manner  of  swal- 
lowing him,  nor  of  vomiting  him  forth.  Do  you  suppose 
that  this  Democratic  whale  will  consult  the  convenience  of 
John  M.  Palmer  and  Lyman  Trumbull  as  to  the  proper 


POLITICAL   OKATOfcY.  135 

time  of  casting  them  out  of  its  stomach,  where  they  are 
now  quietly  housed  ?  " 

Reminding  his  hearers  that  in  1871  Mr.  Trumbull 
and  General  Palmer  supported  a*  resolution  in  the 
Republican  State  Convention  of  Illinois  endorsing 
"  the  eminently  wise,  patriotic,  honest,  and  economical 
administration  of  General  Grant,"  he  asked: 

"  How  are  we  privates,  who  are  compelled  to  browse 
around  in  the  valleys  of  political  thought,  to  know  what 
to  do,  when  our  great  instructors,  who  have  been  upon  the 
mountain  tops  and  occasionally  sent  a  solid  boulder  of 
wisdom  crashing  and  tearing  down  the  mountain  sides  for 
us  to  hammer  away  at,  cut  such  extraordinary  capers? 
Hardly  knowing  what  to  do  last  September,  we  reverently 
listened  for  instructions,  and  on  the  20th  day  thereof,  from 
the  loftiest  peaks,  we  heard  Trumbull  and  Palmer  shout- 
ing to  us — '  We  refer  with  pride  and  admiration  to  the 
wise,  patriotic,  honest  and  economical  administration  of 
General  Grant,  and  we  confidently  recommend  it  to  the 
attention  of  the  whole  country.'  In  our  feeble  way  we 
caught  up  the  law  as  it  was  thus  delivered  to  us,  and  sup- 
posed chat  we  were  singing  the  right  song,  and  in  the  right 
key  as  we  responded.  '  We  refer  with  pride  and  admira- 
tion to  the  eminently  wise,  patriotic,  honest,  and  economi- 
cal administration  of  General  Grant/  Judge  of  our  sur- 
prise, when,  on  the  1st  day  of  May,  suddenly  from  those 
lofty  summits,  and  with  hardly  a  word  of  warning,  we 
heard  Trumbull  and  Palmer  in  full  chorus  shout  forth, 
'  The  administration  now  in  power  has  rendered  itself 
guilty  of  wanton  disregard  of  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  of 
usurping  powers  not  granted  by  the  Constitution.'  We  are 
all  expected  to  join  in  the  responses.  The  music  is  differ- 
ent, the  words  are  different.  They  must  be  sung  to  a  dif- 
ferent key.  Something  is  the  matter  with  the  leaders  of 


136  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

our  choir.  Our  voices  are  not  trained  to  this  new  style  of 
music.  It  is  pitched  too  low  for  us.  We  cannot  suddenly 
leave  the  ' Star-spangled  Banner"  for  ' Dixie/  The  words 
don't  suit  us.  The  result  is  that  the  congregation  feel 
that  this  duet  won't  do  for  them,  and  they  sing  their  good 
old  pieces,  in  the  good  old  words,  to  the  good,  familiar  old 
music,  and  in  the  good  old  way. 

"  The  result  is  the  congregation  is  just  as  large  and 
musical  as  ever.  •  But  our  choir  must  seek  employment 
from  some  other  denomination." 

After  discussing  the  civil  service  reform  question  as 
he  had  done  at  Springfield,  he  next  addressed  himself 
to  Greeley's  famous  plan  for  the  resumption  of  specie 
payments : 

"The  Liberal  Republicans  are  quite  as  vague  and 
uncertain  with  reference  to  the  resumption  of  specie  pay- 
ment as  they  are  in  regard  to  reforming  the  civil  service. 
They  say:  *  A  speedy  return  to  specie  payment  is  demanded 
alike  by  the  highest  considerations  of  commercial  morality 
and  honest  government.'  Precisely.  But  what  do  they 
mean  by  speedy?  Do  they  mean  within  a  month,  or  within 
a  year,  or  within  five  years? 

"Do  they  mean  that  we  ought  to  resume  specie  pay- 
ments as  soon  as,  under  the  natural  growth  of  the  country, 
we  can  conveniently  do  so,  'or  that  resumption  should  be 
forced  by  legislation?  Are  they  in  favor  of  the  national 
banks,  or  are  they  opposed  to  them?  We  are  all  agreed 
that  specie  payment  ought  to  be  resumed,  but  Jiow,  is  the 
question.  The  sage  of  Chappaqua,  who  is  never  at  a  loss 
for  a  plan,  has  solved  the  whole  question  and  relieved  us 
from  all.  difficulty.  With  $400,000,000  of  greenbacks  in 
circulation  and  less  than  $100,000,000  of  coin  in  the  treas- 
ury, he  says  that  '  the  way  to  resume  is  to  resume.'  Cer- 
tainly nothing  is  easier.  Resume  at  once.  Commence 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  13? 

paying  out  coin  one  hundred  cents  on  the  dollar  until  it  is 
all  gone  and  then— having  about  $300,000,000  left  that  we 
have  not  coin  to  meet — we  will  find  that  the  way  to  stop  is 
to  stop.  But  where  is  the  money  to  come  from  to  resume 
with?  Judge  Trumbull  says  our  reserve  is  already  too 
large,  but  it  falls  very  far  short  of  being  large  enough  to 
justify  us  in  resuming.  How  shall  we  get  the  balance? 
•  By  taxation?  There  is  no  other  way  to  get  it,  and  we 
think  our  taxes  are  already  quite  large  enough. 

"We  must  either  have  more  coin  or  less  currency. 
Shall  we  contract?  Let  the  business  interests  of  the 
country  answer  that  question.  The  fact  is,  we  will  never 
resume  specie  payments  through  the  immediate  action  of 
any  legislation  whatever.  No  more  serious  injury  could  be 
inflicted  upon  trade  and  business  interests  than  an  attempt 
to  regulate  and  direct  them  by  legislation.  Experiments 
of  that  kind  always  result  disastrously.  But  what  might 
we  expect  should  Horace  Greeley  be  elected  President? 
Filled  with  the  conceit  that  the  way  to  resume  is  to  resume, 
he  would  in  furtherance  of  his  ideas  recommend  to  Con- 
gress legislation  to  hurry  and  force  resumption.  I  am 
assured,  however,  that  Congress  would  pay  no  heed  to  his 
advice.  'They  probably  would  not,  but  the  effect  of  such 
a  message  upon  business  would  be  instantaneously  felt  at 
home  and  abroad.  Every  national  bank  would  at  once 
contract  its  loans,  and  a  sudden  contraction  of  loans  means 
general  pecuniary  distress,  panics  and  widespread  disaster." 

On  the  amnesty  question,  he  cited  the  generous  and 
noble  words  of  the  President's  last  message  to  Congress, 
and  then  said : 

"If  the  gentlemen  who  are  not  embraced  within  the 
terms  of  the  present  amnesty  bill  desire  pardon,  why  do 
they  not  then  ask  for  it?  It  can  be  had  for  the  asking.  I 
do  not  think  that  it  would  be  subjecting  Jefferson  Davis 


138  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

or  Raphael. Semmes  to  any  very  cruel  humiliation  to  insist 
that  they  should  show  the  genuineness  of  their  repentance 
by  being  compelled  to  ask  for  pardon.  I  submit  that  ques- 
tion to  you. 

"We  are  entreated  to  forgive  and  forget.  We  are 
willing  to  forgive;  but  there  are  many  things  which  they 
ought  never  to  forget.  The  father  will  never  forget  the 
son  who  died  in  the  great  cause.  The  widow  will  never 
forget  the  husband  who  perished  that  the  nation  might 
live.  The  orphans  will  never  forget  the  father  who  wil!7 
ingly  met  death  that  they  might  enjoy  the  priceless  treas- 
ures of  free  government.  We  cannot  forget  the  heroic 
dead  of  this  great  rebellion,  nor  can  we  forget  the  cause 
for  which  they  fought  and  died.  We  may  forget,  but  the 
world  will  never  forget,  those  glorious  events  in  our  and 
the  world's  history,  when  a  great  nation,  through  four  years 
of  war  periled  blood  and  treasure  for  a  principle  and  that 
idea — the  capacity  of  man  for  self-government. 

"  Loud  demands  are  made  for  the  restoration  of  order 
and  for  the  return  of  peace  at  the  South.  We  are  all  in  favor 
of  that,  but  we  differ  widely  from  the  Liberals  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  order  shall  be  restored  and  peace  secured. 
We  would  restore  order  by  suppressing  disorder.  We 
would  secure  peace  by  punishing  those  who  disturb  it. 

"  When  a  mob  is  raging  in  the  streets  it  is  possible  that 
order  might  be  restored  by  surrendering  to  the  mob;  but  a 
better  "way  by  far  is  to  disperse  the  mob  and  punish  its 
ringleaders.  For  the  disorders  which  have  prevailed  at  the 
South  the  negro  is  not  responsible,  nor  is  the  carpet-bag- 
ger. The  Ku-Klux  alone  are  guilty  of  all  the  disorders 
which  have  occurred  there.  What  shall  we  do  to  restore 
order?  Surrender  to  the  Ku-Klux,  or  force  them  to  be- 
have themselves?  The  administration  has  adopted  the 
latter  course.  It  has  interfered,  and  by  legislation  pro- 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  139 

vided  for  the  protection  of  the  negro  in  the  enjoyment  of 
his  newly-acquired  right,  provided  for  the  employment  of 
sufficient  force  to  put  down  and  punish  all  those  who 
would  by  force  interfere  with  it,  provided  for  the  trial  of 
those  guilty  of  violating  that  article  in  the  courts  when  a 
fair  trial  could  be  had.  And  this  is  the  Ku-Klux  Bill. 

"  Of  course,  we  must  expect,  in  the  event  of  Mr. 
Greeley's  election,  that  all  this  legislation  will  be  at  once 
repealed.  Where,  then,  will  the  freed  men  be  left?  Oh,  we 
are  told  by  the  Democracy,  we  are  in  favor  of  the  amend- 
ment. But  the  amendment  is  self-enforcing.  The  Con- 
stitution provides  for  a  Judicial  Department,  consisting  of 
one  Supreme  Court  and  such  inferior  courts  as  the  Con- 
gress may  from  time  to  time  ordain  and  establish.  The 
inferior  courts  are  created  by  an  act  of  Congress.  Suppose 
that  you  repeal  the  legislation,  what  becomes  of  your  courts? 

"  You  have  not  touched  the  Constitution — you  are  ear- 
nestly in  favor  of  that,  but  still  opposed  to  all  legislative 
action  which  gives  it  effect.  So  was  the  fifteenth  amend- 
ment. The  right  to  vote  is  conferred,  and  Congress  is 
authorized  to  enforce  it  by  appropriate  legislation.  The 
Democracy  is  in  favor  of  the  amendment,  but  opposed  to 
all  laws  which  may  be  necessary  to  make  it  operative. 
Repeal  this  legislation,  and  what  becomes  of  the  negro? 
He  is  at  once  handed  over  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the 
Ku-Klux,  driven  from  the  polls,  and  no  power  can  be 
found  to  prevent  it." 

The  earnestness  and  impressiveness  of  this  argument 
were  never  surpassed  in  any  subsequent  speech  made 
by  Mr.  Storrs  during  this  campaign.  It  duly  impressed, 
not  only  all  his  hearers  at  Jacksonville,  but  all  who 
afterwards  read  the  report  in  the  Chicago  papers ;  and 
no  doubt  had  a  good  effect  in  keeping  in  the  ranks 
many  waverers. 


140      „  POLITICAL  OIIATORY. 

At  Indianapolis,  on  the  28th  of  August,  Mr.  Storrs 
delivered  an  address  which  the  Journal  of  that  city 
characterized  as  "  one  of  the  best  efforts '  of  the  cam- 
paign." The  night  was  stormy  r  and  the  driving  rain 
on  the  roof  of  the  wigwam  created  an  uproar  that 
interfered  considerably  with  the  pleasure  of  those  who 
desired  to  catch  every  word,  but  the  opposition  of  the 
elements  only  served  to  pack  the  auditors  more  closely 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  stage.  Mr.  Storrs  began  by  pay- 
ing his  respects  to  Mr.  Hendricks,  as  follows: 

"The  most  extraordinary  feature  of  the  present  cam- 
paign is  the  industrious  effort  made  by  our  adversaries  to 
rule  out  all  history  and  all  past  experience  as  guides  for 
the  future. 

"Mr.  Hendricks  insists  that  we  must  keep  our  eyes 
fixed  steadily  on  the  future,  and  that  under  no  circum- 
stances must  we  seek  to  gather  any  instruction  from  the 
past.  We  must  forget  all  that  we  ever  knew,  and  unlearn 
all  that  we  ever  learned.  If  we  were  situated  precisely  as 
Mr.  Heudricks  is,  we  might  think  with  him.  If,  upon 
looking  back  upon  the  past  history  of  our  party,  we  found 
what  he  finds  when  he  reviews  the  record  of  the  Democ- 
racy— a  record  stained  all  over  with  political  crimes  and 
offences  of  the  most  serious  and  damning  character,  we 
would  undoubtedly  feel  as  he  feels — great  anxiety  to  bury 
it  out  of  sight  and  to  detach  himself  from  it. 

"  That  man  never  lived  who,  after  spending  at  least  half 
of  his  lifetime  in  the  violation  of  the  law  and  in  the  com- 
mission of  crime,  did  not,  when  he  desired  the  confidence 
of  his  fellows,  resent  with  great  zeal  any  allusion  to*  his 
past  career,  and  seek  to  bury  them  out  of  sight  as  dead 
issues.  But,  dead  as  such  issues  are,  it  is  wonderful  how 
they  stick  to  a  man,  and  how  they  will  continually  rise  up 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  141 

in  judgment  against  him.  The  course  usually  pursued  by 
such  unfortunates  is  a  new  departure  in  its  largest  sense. 
They  cut  their  hair,  change  their  clothes,  leave  their  coun- 
try, adopt  another  name,  and  travel  under  an  assortment 
of  aliases.  All  these  things  the  Democratic  party  is  now 
doing.  The  trouble  is  that  the  disguise  which  they  have 
assumed  is  too  thin.  We  all  see  through  it.  "We  see  under 
this  gauzy  covering  of  reform  the  old  State- sovereignty, 
repudiation,  negro-hating  Democrat.  They  claim  that 
they  are  really  and  in  fact  converted. 

"We  suspect  the  genuineness  of  the  conversion.  It  is 
too  sudden.  The  conversion  of  Saul  of  Tarsus  is  hardly  in 
point,  for  although  Saul,  like  modern  Democracy,  went 
forth  breathing  threatenings  and  slaughter,  on  his  trip  to 
Damascus  he  saw  a  light  —  I  am  convinced  entirely  different 
from  the  one  which  the  Democracy  beheld  at  Baltimore. 
The  light  which  Saul  saw  was  from  heaven.  That  which 
the  Democracy  beheld  was  from  Cincinnati.  By  it  they 
were  enabled  to  see  the  treasury  department  and  all  the 
other  departments  of  the  government,  a  spectacle  which 
had  not  gladdened  their  eyes  for  years.  Saul  didn't  ask 
the  disciples  to  join  him,  but  he  joined  them.  Saul  did 
not  propose  that  the  famous  liberal  Christian,  Jtidas,  should 
join  him  and  the  high  priest  for  a  great  reform  movement. 
Saul  not  only  changed  his  views,  but  he  changed  his  name, 
and  henceforth  was  no  longer  known  as  Saul  of  Tarsus, 
but  as  Paul  the  Apostle. 

"  Our  party  has  always  been  a  great  political  mission- 
ary organization.  We  have  to-day  within  our  ranks  thou- 
sands and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  converted  Democrats. 
We  expect  to  have  hundreds  of  thousands  more.  With  us 
they  feel  that  glorious  freedom  which  the  truth  alone  can 
give,  that  'joy  which  passeth  all  understanding/* 

Mr.  Storrs  was  quite  in  a  biblical  vein,  and  hi§ 


142  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

speech  throughout  was  pointed  with  scriptural  illustra- 
tions. 

"  The  overthrow  of  the  rebellion  liberated  four  mil- 
lions of  negroes,  but  it  liberated  even  a  larger  number  of 
Democrats.  The  colored  man  had  sense  enough  to  seize  his 
liberty.  But  many  Democrats  seem  to  be  afraid  to  take  out 
their  manumission  papers.  Don't  be  alarmed,  my  Demo- 
cratic friends.  Freedom  won't  hurt  you.  '  Avail  yourself 
of  it,  and  the  longer  you  enjoy  it  the  better  you  will  like  it. 

"We  think  it  most  ungenerous  that,  after  having  lib- 
erated the  Democrat  from  the  thralldom  which  bound  him 
for  years,  after  having  saved  for  him  the  country  which 
his  party  sought  to  destroy,  after  having  freely  forgiven 
the  manifold  sins  of  omission  and  commission  of  which  he 
has  been  guilty,  he  should  seek  to  deprive  the  negro  of 
even  the  slightest  benefits  of  his  newly-acquired  freedom, 
and  should  exact  from  him  the  full  measure  of  the  little 
debt  he  owes  even  unto  the  uttermost  farthing. 

"  It  is  an  old  story,  but  in  point  here  —  that  of  the  king 
who  took  an  accojmt  of  his  servants,  one  of  whom  owed 
him  ten  thousand  talents;  having  nothing  with  which  to 
discharge  this  heavy  debt,  the  servant  begged  for  patience 
.and  promised  to  pay  all.  Moved  with  compassion,  the  king 
pardoned  him  and  forgave  the  debt. 

"  How  much  like  a  modern  Democrat  that  old  servant 
behaved.  Going  into  the  streets,  rejoicing  in  his  freedom, 
he  meets  a  fellow-servant  who  owed  him  an  hundred  pence, 
and  he  laid  hands  on  him  and  took  him  by  the  throat  say- 
ing, '  Pay  me  that  thou  owest ! '  This  fellow-servant  begged 
for  mercy,  promised  to  pay  all,  but  the  big  debtor  cast  his 
fellow-servant  into  prison  until  he  should  pay  the  debt;  and 
then,  we  are  told,  his  lord  was  wroth,  and  delivered  this 
unjust  servant  over  to  the  tormentors  until  he  should  pay 
all  that  was  due. 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  143 

"Let  these  Democrats  take  heed  from  this  story. 
Nothing  torments  the  average  Democrat  like  an  exclusion 
from  ofiice.  He  must  deal  fairly  with  his  fellow-servants, 
or  the  torments  of  disappointed  hopes  which  he  has  suf- 
fered the  last  twelve  years  he  will  be  compelled  to  endure 
forever. 

"I  am  constrained  to  believe  that  the  Democratic  party 
is  not  yet  converted.  But  if  it  really  is,  why  should  it  not 
be  quite  willing  to  give  a  proof  similar  to  those  furnished 
by  Saul  of  Tarsus?  First,  let  it  cease  breathing  threaten- 
ings  and  slaughter  against  Republicans  and  the  Republi- 
can party,  and  show  that  they  were  in  fact  good  Republi- 
cans by  joining  our  party,  preaching  our  doctrine  and 
voting  our  ticket.  Second,  like  Saul  of  Tarsus,  let  them 
mark  the  period  of  their  conversion  by  changing  their 
name.  Their  willingness  to  '  shake  hands  across  the 
bloody  chasm'  with  some  of  our  Judases  won't  answer  the 
purpose." 

He  repudiated  the  idea  that  the  renegades  who  had 
gone  over  to  the  Democracy  ever  were,  in  any  sense, 
"  leaders  "  of  the  Republican  party.  Then  he  showed  the 
incongruity  of  the  Democratic  platform  and  candidates, 
and  contrasted  both  with  the  plain,  honest,  consistent 
declarations  and  performances  of  the  Republican  party 
and  President  Grant  : 

"  Horace  Greeley  is  the  most  intensely  high-tariff  man 
in  the  country,  and  always  has  been.  Brown  is  a  free- 
trader from  principle,  and  never  has  been  anything  else. 
Greeley  is  in  favor  of  Ku-Klux  legislation.  Brown  is 
thoroughly  and  bitterly  opposed  to  it.  Greeley  is  a  tem- 
perance man,  to  the  extreme  of  total  abstinence;  he 
eschews  all  meats,  and  is  a  Graham-bread  man  on  principle. 
Brown  is  a  man  who,  according  to  his  own  confession, 
occasionally  relapses  into  total  abstinence,  who  favors  soft- 


144  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

shell  crab  and  butters  his  water-melon.  Now,  my  Demo- 
cratic friend,  which  of  these  two  worthies  are  you  going 
for?  You  cannot  go  for  them  both,  for  they' are  as  diverse 
and  opposite  as  the  poles.  Then,  the  candidates  do  not 
agree  with  their  platform,  either  taken  together  or  sepa- 
rately. They  do  not  agree  with  their  platform  any  better 
than  they  agree  with  each  other.  Sumner  says  he  will  go 
for  Greeley  because  the  Democracy  has  been  converted. 
Semmes  says  he  will  go  for  Greeley  because  Greeley  has 
been  converted.  Sumner  says  he  is  going  for  Greeley 
because  Greeley  favors  the  negro  race,  while  Semmes  says 
he  is  going  for  him  because  he  advocates  the  right  of  seces- 
sion/ Trumbull  goes  for  Greeley  because  Brown  is  in 
favor  of  free  trade,  and  the  protectionist  goes  for  Greeley 
because  Greeley  is  in  favor  of  protection.  Now  this  party 
designs  to  swindle  somebody,  and  if  God  should  see  fit  to 
visit  Horace  Greeley  upon  us,  somebody  is  as  certain  to  be 
swindled  as  that  two  and  two  make  four.  It  is  either  the 
Republican  who  votes  for  Greeley  on  the  strength  of  his 
Republicanism,  or  it  is  the  Democrat  who  votes  for  him  on 
the  strength  of  his  Democracy;  whichever  way  you  take 
it,  one  way  or  the  other,  you  must  have  it;  there  can  be  no 
middle  ground." 

He  showed  that  the  new  doctrine  of  local  self-gov- 
ernment was  nothing  else  than  the  old  doctrine  of 
state-sovereignty  and  the  right  of  secession  in  disguise : 

"  We  fought  through  five  years  of  war  to  put  down 
that  accursed  political  heresy,  and,  now  that  we  have  suc- 
ceeded, we  mean  that  it  shall  stay  down,  and  we  intend  to 
trample  out  the  last  vestige  of  its  existence.  That  is 
Republican  doctrine. 

"  But  you  tell  us  we  have  been  cruel  in  not  extending 
amnesty  to  our  Southern  brethren.  "Well,  they  all  have 
the  right  to  vote,  and  the  disabilities  existing  against  them 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  145 

are  simply  such  as  are  created  by  the  fourteenth  constitu- 
tional amendment.  Now,  my  Liberal  Republican  friend, 
if  you  are  opposed  to  the  existence  of  those  disabilities, 
you  arc  opposed  to  the  fourteenth  amendment,  by  which 
they  were  created,  and  if  you  are  opposed  to  that  amend- 
ment, let  me  ask  you  to  stand  out  like  a  man  and  say  so. 
If  you  want  to  reargue  that  question,  if  you  want  to  open 
up  either  the  fourteenth  or  fifteenth  amendments,  we  are 
prepared  to  reargue  both  of  them.  But  what  is  the  truth 
about  these  disabilities?  What  do  they  amount  to?  Just 
this:  about  one  hundred  and  forty  Southern  gentlemen 
are  deprived  of  the  glorious  privilege  of  holding  office. 
Now,  there  are  thousands  of  Democrats  at  the  North  who 
have  been  ever  since  18GO  laboring  under  political  disabili- 
ties of  exactly  that  character.  Since  that  time  how  many 
a  Democrat  has  been  prevented  from  holding  office?  The 
disability  was  created  in  a  different  way,  to  be  sure;  it  was 
imposed  upon  them  by  the  voice  of  the  people  in  that  case, 
and  in  this  it  Avas  imposed  by  the  constitution. 

"  But  would  it  not  be  fair  and  decent,  to  say  the  least, 
that  these  Southern  gentlemen,  Davis  and  Toombs  and 
Wigfall  and  Semines,  should  ask  for  pardon  before  they 
get  it?  The  great  God  of  infinite  wisdom,  while  his  capac- 
ity for  pardoning  is  infinite,  never  pardons  the  sinner 
until  he  prays  for  pardon.  You  know  it  is  said, '  Knock,  and 
it  shall  be  opened  unto  you/  'Ask,  and  ye  shall  receive.'  And 
whenever,  on  bended  knee,  with  a  broken  spirit  and  a  con- 
trite heart,  with  his  hand  upon  his  mouth  and  his  mouth 
in  the  dust,  the  sinner  humbly  confesses  his  sin  and  begs 
for  pardon,  then,  and  not  until  then,  does  he  get  it.  Arc 
we  asking  too  much  when  we  ask  that  Davis  and  Semmes 
and  Toombs  shall  ask  to  have  these  disabilities  removed? 
If  you  think  it  is  unkind  to  make  that  requirement,  take 
a  pardon  with  you  and  go  down  South,  and,  on  bended 


}46  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

knee,  supplicate  Jeff.  Davis  graciously  to  be  pleased  to 
accept  a  pardon  from  your  hand.  You  may  do  it  if  you 
wish  —  the  Republican  party  never  will." 

In  September  Mr.  Storrs  was  stumping  the  state  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  on  the  17th  delivered  a  stirring 
address  at  Eeading,  in  the  Library  Hall.  At  the  out- 
set he  urged  the  Republicans  to  do  their  utmost  to  elect 
the  Pennsylvania  state  ticket.  He  said: 

''The  interest  felt  by  Republicans  throughout  the  en- 
tire country  in  the  result  of  the  October  election  in  this 
state  arises  not  so  much  from  any  knowledge  of  the  indi- 
vidual character  of  the  candidates  as  from  the  controlling 
effect  which  this  election  will  or  may  have  upon  the  general 
result  throughout  the  whole  country.  We  feel  that  the 
Republicans  of  Pennsylvania  have  no  right  to  defeat  the 
Republican  party  in  the  nation,  nor  even  to  imperil  its 
success  upon  any  merely  personal  considerations.  We  do 
not  believe  that  they  will  do  so.  In  the  times  past  the 
Republicans  of  the  old  Keystone  have,  with  a  patriotism 
and  unselfishness  which  has  secured  for  them  the  gratitude 
of  the  whole  country,  cheerfully  set  aside  all  personal  con- 
siderations, and  regarded,  not  their  individual  wishes  and 
feelings  merely,  but  the  best  interests  of  the  nation.  This 
much  —  no  more,  and  no  less  —  will  be  expected  from  them 
in  the  pending  state  election.  It  is  not  for  me  to  say 
what,  in  this  state,  would  be  the  effect  upon  the  presiden- 
tial ticket  of  the  defeat  of  General  Hartranft.  But  this  I 
do  know :  that  in  every  other  state  in  the  Union  such  a 
result  would  be  most  dispiriting  and  disheartening  ;  it 
might  be  disastrous.  Pennsylvania  holds  the  key  to  the 
position,  and  the  Republican  party  will  hold  you  to  the 
strictest  accountability.  Your  state  election  can  in  no 
proper  sense  be  said  to  be  local.  Where  the  key  of  the 
position  falls,  the  position  itself  falls  with  it.  A  man  may 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  14? 

have  a  disease  of  the  heart.  In  one  sense  it  would  be  local. 
But  when  the  heart  stops  beating  the  man  stops  breathing, 
and  the  whole  man  dies.  We  would  hardly  think  of 
attempting  to  comfort  his  mourning  family  by  assuring 
them  that  the  disease  was  merely  a  local  one. 

"To  the  Republicans  of  Pennsylvania  may  the  defence 
of  your  nominees  be  safely  entrusted.  It  is  quite  clear 
that  they  are  entirely  competent  to  perform  that  work.  I 
invite  your  attention,  therefore,  to  the  broader  questions 
involved  in  our  national  politics.  The  most  extraordinary 
feature  of  the  present  canvass  is  the  attempt  made  by  our 
adversaries  to  rule  out  as  an  element  of  human  calculation 
for  the  future  all  past  history  and  experience.  Men  cer- 
tainly never  do  that  in  their  dealings  with  each  other.  In 
judging  whether  a  man's  future  course  will  be  straightfor- 
ward and  upright,  we  are  apt  to  give  him  the  benefit  of  the 
fact,  if  it  exists,  that  his  past  course  has  always  been  such, 
and  however  valiantly  a  party  whose  history  is  a  record  of 
crimes  might  disclaim  against  any  allusion  to  the  fact  as  a 
discussion  of  dead  issues,  we  would  certainly,  in  deciding 
its  future  course,  be  greatly  influenced  by  those  dead 
issues.  Our  opponents  ask  us  to  believe,  and  to  act  upon 
that  belief,  that  a  political  party  whose  course  has  always 
been  honest,  faithful  and  patriotic  will  for  the  next  par- 
ticular four  years  reverse  its  history,  and  pursue  a  dishon- 
est, unfaithful  and  unpatriotic  policy,  and  that  a  party 
which  for  the  last  twenty  years  has  never  been  on  the  right 
side  of  any  question  will  for  the  next  four  years  be  on  the 
right  side  of  all  questions." 

Mr.  Storrs  then  rapidly  sketched  the  history  of  the 
Republican  party,  claiming  that  for  what  it  had  actually 
achieved  it  was  entitled  to  the  gratitude  of  good  men 
everywhere;  that  it  had  done  nothing  and  omitted 
to  do  nothing  which  would  justify  the  people  in  with- 


148  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

drawing  from  it  their  confidence,  and  that  the  mission 
of  such  a  party  would  never  be  ended  so  long  as  there 
remained  one  forward  step  to  be  taken  in  the  pathway 
of  human  progress. 

He  reviewed  the  record  of  the  Democratic  party,  its 
opposition  to  the  constitutional  amendments,  and  its 
proposal  to  repudiate  the  national  debt,  and  pointed  out 
the  inconsistencies  of  the  coalition  on  the  questions  of 
revenue  reform  and  civil  service  reform.  The  veto 
power  was  vested  in  the  President  by  the  express  letter 
of  the  constitution ;  yet  Horace  Greeley  had  agreed  to 
abdicate  this  function  in  respect  to  the  tariff  at  the 
bidding  of  the  Cincinnati  reformers. 

"  Thus  we  are  to  secure  a  purer  administration  and  a 
more  faithful  execution  of  the  laws,  by  a  deliberate  agree- 
ment to  neglect  the  performance  of  a  constitutional  duty, 
by  the  surrender  of  a  constitutional  right,  by  basely  desert- 
ing all  convictions  of  public  interests,  by  a  clear  violation 
of  an  official  oath.  A  political  convention  which  will  be 
permitted  to  demand  of  its  candidate  the  surrender  of  a 
portion  of  his  official  powers  as  the  price  of  his  nomination 
and  election  may,  with  equal  propriety,  demand  the  sur- 
•render  of  them  all,  and  thus  practically  abolish  the  office 
of  President  altogether. 

"  The  price  which  Horace  Greeley  has  agreed  to  pay 
for  his  nomination  and  election,  is  one  which  no  conven- 
tion at  any  previous  period  in  our  history  has  had  the  im- 
pudence to  demand  from  its  candidate.  The  price  which 
Esau  received  for  his  birthright  was  a  liberal  one  in  com- 
parison, for  Esau  received  the  mess  of  pottage  Jacob  had 
to  give.  To  no  such  depths  has  a  Presidential  candidate 
ever  sunk  before,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  on  this  '  bad 
eminence*  Horace  will  stand  alone  —  the  solitary  instance 
of  a  public  man  bartering  the  convictions  of  a  lifetime, 


POLITICAL   Or.AlOHY.  149 

for  the  empty  honor  of  a  Presidential  nomination  —  selling 
his  birthright  for  the  mere  promise  of  a  mess  of  pottage. 

"  Moreover,  this  new  party  returns  clearly  to  the  old 
and  exploded  heresy  of  state  sovereignty  Its  platform 
declares  that  '  local  self-government,  with  impartial  suf- 
frage, will  guard  the  rights  of  all  citizens  more  securely 
than  any  centralized  power.'  The  consequence  of  the  doc- 
trine of  state  sovereignty  was  the  right  of  secession  and 
the  denial  of  any  right  of  coercion  in  the  Federal  govern- 
ment. It  is  clear  that  if  local  self-government  attempts 
to  secede,  nothing  but  the  '  centralized  power '  of  the 
Union  can  prevent  it.  But  this  centralized  power  is  re- 
pudiated, and  under  any  and  all  circumstances  local  self- 
government  must  have  its  way.  This  is  l  reforming '  us 
back  to  the  dismal  years  immediately  preceding  the  war. 
The  question  which  we  supposed  we  had  settled,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  500,000  lives  and  $3,000,000,000  of  money  and 
four  years  of  war,  is  again  presented  to  us.  Our  views 
upon  it  are  the  same  that  they  have  ever  been,  and  we  hope 
by  this  blow  to  crush  it  out  forever." 

Mr.  Storrs  then  proceeded  to  the  discussion  of  Mr. 
Greeley's  record,  showing  that  he  was  not  to-day,  and 
had  never  been,  on  the  great  fundamental  question  in 
our  politics — the  right  of  secession  —  a  Republican, 
that  he  denied  the  right  to  coerce,  that  as  commander- 
in-chief,  if  true  to  his  principles,  an  attempt  to  secede 
must  inevitably  succeed ;  that  his  course  throughout  the 
war  was  factional,  variable  and  damaging  to  the  Union 
cause,  and  finally  demonstrated  that  in  the  Peace  Con- 
ference at  Niagara  Falls,  he  willfully  and  deliberately 
placed  Abraham  Lincoln  in  a  false  position  before  the 
country  and  refused  to  relieve  him  from  it,  thus  placing 
himself  beyond  the  pale  of  Republicanism,  Republican 
sympathy  and  Republican  support. 


YI. 
THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1876. 

"  LIBERAL  "  REPUBLICANISM  —  CIVIL  SERVICE  REFORM  — 
REVISION  OF  THE  TARIFF  —  RESUMPTION  OF  SPECIE 
PAYMENT — GENERAL  GRANT'S  RECORD  CONTRASTED 
WITH  THAT  OF  HORACE  GfiEELEY SCRIPTURAL  ILLUS- 
TRATIONS. 

IN  taking  the  field  in  1870  on  behalf  of  the  nominees 
of  the  Republican  convention,  which  met  at  Cincin- 
nati, and  with  such  names  as  Conkling,  Morton  and 
Elaine  before  them,  chose  R.  B.  Hayes  as  the  standard- 
bearer  of  the  party,  Mr.  Storrs  was  eloquent  as  usual  in 
eulogy  of  the  party  record,  and  vigorous  in  his  denunci- 
ation of  the  Democracy,  but,  for  the  first  and  last  time 
in  his  career  as  a  Republican  advocate,  there  was  a 
noticeable  falling  off  in  his  enthusiasm  for  the  candidate. 
He  would,  in  common  with  a  majority  of  the  party,  have 
preferred  a  known  leader  at  the  head  of  the  ticket ;  a 
man  who  was  stalwart  in  his  convictions,  and  who  could 
give  effect  to  the  demand  of  the  party  as  expressed  in 
the  platform  of  1876,  for  the  vigorous  and  continuous 
exercise  of  the  powers  of  the  Federal  government  until 
all  classes  were  secure  in  their  civil  and  political  rights. 
How  Mr.  Hayes  would  carry  out  this  programme  was 
entirely  a  matter  of  conjecture,  as  he  was  almost  with- 
out a  record  when  he  unexpectedly  rose  into  the  most 
prominent  place  before  the  nation. 

A  ratification  meeting  was.  held  in  Chicago  shortly 
after  the  adjournment  of  the  convention,  and  Mr.  Storrs 

150 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  151 

addressed  the  ^Republicans  there  assembled.  He  said  : 
"  As  I  look  about  on  this  platform  and  in  the  body  of 
this  hall,  I  see  many  of  the  most  conclusive  evidences  of 
the  wisdom  of  the  Republican  convention  which  has 
recently  been  held  at  Cincinnati  in  the  nomination  of 
Hayes  and  Wheeler.  I  see  many  of  my  good  old  Liberal 
friends  returned  to  the  Republican  fold.  I  welcome  them 
back.  I  am  sorry  that  they  ever  left  —  I  am  glad  that  they 
have  returned.  My  friends  were  foolish,  but,  after  having 
learned  that  the  adventure  of  the  prodigal  son  always  results 
in  a  husk  dividend,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  in  future  we  will 
stand  together  as  we  do  to-night,  and  as  we  will  in  the  can- 
vass, upon  the  threshold  of  which  we  are  just  standing.  We 
will  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Republican  party  is 
strong  and  virtuous  enough  to  effect  its  own  reforms,  and 
that  one  of  the  poorest  methods  on  earth  to  reform  the 
Republican  party  is  by  voting  the  Democratic  ticket. 

"  I  ratify  the  nomination  of  Hayes  and  Wheeler,  of 
course,  because  they  are  both  good  men,  because  they  are 
both  fit  men,  because  they  are  both  men  unassailed  and 
unassailable,  and  for  another  reason  —  because  they  are  the 
Republican  nominees.  I  would  not  vote  for  Hayes  or 
Wheeler,  or  any  other  man  running  on  a  Democratic  ticket. 
I  have  that  confidence — that  sublime  and  perfect  confi- 
dence—  that,  in  a  tight  place  and  in  a  delicate  position,  the 
Democratic  party  will  do  the  wrong  thing  as  a  party  —  that 
no  nomination  that  they  could  possibly  make  could  combine 
in  itself  virtue  enough  in  the  candidates  to  overcome  the 
inherent  cussedness  of  that  great  aggregation  of  men.  I 
am  for  the  Republican  nominees  because  the  Republican 
party  is  as  good  as  the  nominees;  because,  taken  as  a  great 
mass,  it  represents  the  loyal  sentiment  and  the  patriotism 
and  the  honest  desire  for  reform  in  this  country.  I  believe 
that  the  Republican  party,  as  a  party  organization,  with 


152  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

all  its  mistakes,  with  all  its  errors,  and  with  all  its  short- 
comings, has  within  itself  to  clean  the  Augean  stable,  to 
elevate  our  civil  service,  and  to  march  all  the  time,  if  not 
a  little  ahead,  fully  abreast  of  a  wise  and  honest  public 
sentiment.  When  the  Eepublican  party  ceases  to  be  a 
party  of  movement,  and  forward  movement,  it  will  cease  to 
be  the  Republican  party.  It  was  a  party  organized,  not  for 
a  day,  but  for  all  time.  It  takes  things  as  it  finds  them, 
but  it  never  leaves  them  as  it  finds  them.  It  found  4,000,- 
000  of  chattels  —  it  has  made  4,000,000  of  voters  in  their 
place.  It  found  a  great  nation,  the  hope  of  civil  liberty 
all  over  the  globe,  struggling  in  the  arms  of  a  gigantic 
rebellion,  and  it  carried  it  safely  through  its  flaming  perils, 
and  has  guaranteed  to  our  republic  the  eternity  of  success 
and  glory.  It  found  a  depreciated  and  almost  exploded 
currency  and  a  crippled  national  credit.  Steadily  and 
persistently  it  began  eight  years  ago  to  denounce  the  fraud- 
ulent conception  that  our  national  debt  should  be  paid  in 
greenbacks;  it  has  never  swerved  a  moment  from  the  course 
it  then  took;  it  has  pursued  it  unceasingly  ever  since,  and 
it  will  never  abandon  the  question  until  the  word  of  the 
United  States  finds  its  redemption  in  coin,  in  the  currency 
of  the  world. 

"  It  is  impossible  that  all  the  reforms  which  the  people 
demand  shall  be  wrought  out  by  the  election  of  Hayes  and 
Wheeler,  or  by  that  of  anybody  else.  Their  election  is 
simply  the  expression  of  the  public  will  that  there  shall  be 
a  reform.  An  honest  man,  standing  at  the  head  of  the  gov- 
ernment, and  backed  up  by  a  constituency  which  has  a  lack 
of  moral  sympathy  with  him,  is  as  helpless  as  a  baby.  I 
approve  and  ratify  these  nominations,  because  they  repre- 
sent the  average  sense  and  the  best  matured  judgment  of 
the  whole  people  of  the  whole  country. 

"  It  has  been  my  habit,  in  looking  at  political  questions, 


POLITICAL  OfcAfORY.  153 

when  I  was  in  doubt  as  to  the  best  course  to  pursue,  to  see 
what  the  Democratic  party  desired,  and  then  select  the 
opposite.  I  am  perfectly  certain  that  we  have  followed  the 
wisest  course,  because  the  nomination  of  Hayes  and  Wheeler 
has  unlimbered  their  every  gun,  and  demoralized  the 
crowd.  They  must  seek  for  a  great  unknown,  but  there  is 
one  thing  that  is  known,  and  that  is  the  rebel  record  of  the 
party  which  the  great  unknown  must  head.  The  past  of 
their  career  weighs  down  upon  them  like  a  mountain  load, 
and  no  man,  snatched  from  any  obscurity  however  great,  can 
carry  that  record  forward  safely,  and  triumph  in  the  face 
of  the  united  Republicanism  of  the  nation  which  we  see 
to-day. 

"  I  observe  that  they  say  that  our  candidates  are  color- 
less. Good.  It  is  probably  because  their  garments  are 
absolutely  white.  There  is  no  genius  for  plunder,  no 
audacity  for  rings.  We  belong  to  that  party  which 
to-day  has  an  infinitely  profounder  belief  in  the  goodness 
of  God  than  it  ever  had  in  the  dexterity  of  the  devil.  Our 
party  platform  is  so  clear  that  everybody  understands  it. 
Reform  in  administration ;  not  work  to  be  accomplished  by  a 
spurt;  one  election  does  not  achieve  it.  The  army  capture 
an  outpost,  but  the  citadel  of  corruption  for  which  our 
party  is  not  responsible — of  that  corruption  which  began 
and  gathered  strength  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago — will  never 
surrender  without  the  most  unwearied,  patient,  and  per- 
sistent exertion.  Every  man — every  private  in  the  ranks — 
can  contribute  his  mite  in  that  direction.  A  reform  of 
our  civil  service  ;  how,  and  exactly  by  what  method,  we 
will  tell  by  one  experiment  after  another,  if  experiment  be 
necessary,  until  the  result  be  achieved.  An  honest  cur- 
rency, the  redemption  of  our  promises  to  pay  in  coin  by 
the  fulfilment  of  the  national  engagements, — these  are  the 
principles  upon  which  the  Republican  party  stands  to-day, 


154  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

absolutely  unchallengeable,  and  they  commend  themselves 
to  the  good  judgment  and  the  loftier  patriotism  of  the 
whole  people." 

On  the  14th  of  July,  he  addressed  a  large  and  en- 
thusiastic meeting  at  Aurora,  111.,  and  criticised  very 
keenly  and  minutely  the  sophistical  platform  which 
the  Democrats  had  adopted  at  the  St.  Louis  Convention, 
and  which  Mr.  Storrs  characterized  as  "  the  cheekiest 
platform  ever  witnessed  in  political  history  or  litera- 
ture." The  concluding  part  of  his  speech  was  devoted 
to  a  telling  review  of  Mr.  Tilden's  record  : 

"  It  has  been  my  pleasure,  for  every  political  canvass  of 
any  national  importance  since  1861,  to  address  the  Repub- 
licans  of  this  growing  and  very  beautiful  city,  and  I,  by  no 
means,  feel  that  I  am  among  strangers,  for  as  I  look  about 
I  see  those  whom  I  saw  on  the  first  occasion  I  ever  visited 
Aurora,  who  have  stood  with  me  during  those  long  and 
terrible  years  of  the  war.  I  see  those  who  never  faltered 
when  dangers  of  the  most  serious  character  threatened  us. 
I  see  those  to-night  who,  after  the  war  had  closed,  were  as 
resolute  that  the  fruits  of  our  victory  should  be  gathered 
and  garnered  as  they  were  that  those  effects  should  be,  in 
the  first  instance,  achieved.  I  see  those  who  have  always 
been  Republicans  ever  since  there  has  been  a  Republican 
party,  and  who  always  will  be  Republicans  as  long  as  there 
is  a  Democratic  party.  When  I  am  asked,  as  I  sometimes 
am,  how  long  the  Republican  party  will  live,  I  say  it  will 
live  at  least  one  election  after  the  final  and  eternal  death 
of  the  Democracy,  for  so  long  as  the  Democratic  party 
keeps  above  ground  and  exhibits  any  signs  of  vitality  so 
long  is  the  existence  of  the  Republican  party  a  military 
necessity.  It  will  not — this  Democratic  party — always  en- 
dure, for  we  are  a  great  evangelizing  and  missionary 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  155 

agency.  "We  began  the  good  work  of  converting  that  party 
in  18GO,  and  we  have  been  pursuing  that  purpose  steadily 
and  persistently  and  unwaveringly  ever  since.  Thousands 
and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  those  original  Democrats 
have  been  converted  to  Republicanism  and  are  now  safely 
within  the  ample  folds  of  the  Republican  party. 

"They  complain  of  us  that  we  are  waving  the  'bloody 
shirt/  that  we  will  not  let  by-gones  be  by-gones,  and  that 
we  are  continually  singing  the  same  old  song,  and  making 
the  same  old  speeches.  It  is  unfortunate  that  it  is  so,  but 
the  misfortune  arises  from  the  fact  that  it  is  necessary  it 
should  be  so.  When  one  of  my  dear,  deluded  Democratic 
friends  says,  '  For  God's  sake,  why  don't  you  stop  talking 
these  same  old  things?'  I  say,  'For  God's  sake,  why 
don't  you  stop  being  that  same  old  party?'  We  must 
talk  about  the  antecedents  and  the  history  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  because  the  party  of  to-day  is  the  same  party, 
identical  in  material,  identical  in  its  membership,  identical 
in  its  spirit,  identical  in  its  traditions,  identical  in  all  its 
purposes  —  the  same  old  party  that  declared  that  the  great 
chart  of  American  liberties  was  a  glittering  generality, 
that  scoffed  at  patriotic  feeling  as  a  delusion  and  a  sham, 
that  asserted  the  right  of  secession,  that  involved  this 
nation  in  rebellion  the  most  stupendous  in  its  purposes 
that  the  world  ever  witnessed,  that  obstructed  the  fair  and 
patriotic  reconstruction  of  these  states,  that  attempted  the 
repudiation  of  the  national  debt  and  the  destruction  of  the 
national  credit.  It  is  the  same  old  party  that  has  been  guilty 
of  all  these  crimes  and  offenses,  and  the  men  who  now 
make  up  that  organization,  and  give  it  tone,  and  character, 
and  life,  are  the  individual  men  who  have  been  guilty  of 
all  those  political  offenses  which  ought  to  hare  consigned 
them  to  eternal  political  oblivion.  In  the  nature  of  things 
the  Democratic  party  must  expect  to  face  its  terrific  record. 


15C  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

It  comes  Once  every  four  years  before  the  people  of  this 
country  and  demands  their  recognition  and  confidence. 
The  Democratic  party  comes  before  the  people  of  this 
country  to-day  and  asks  that  it  shall  have  the  management 
of  our  national  debt,  the  control  of  the  national  finances, 
and  be  intrusted  with  what  it  calls  the  reform  of  both.  It 
makes  loud  and  lofty  promises  of  its  performances  in  the 
future.  .But  as  wise  men,  as  absolutely  unimpassioned 
men,  if  such  a  thing  were  possible  in  the  presence  of  ques- 
tions so  great  in  their  magnitude- —  as  wise  men,  I  say,  we 
must  take  you,  not  by  the  assurance  you  make  to  day,  but 
by  your  performances  in  the  long  past  which  stretches 
behind  you. 

If  we  had  such  a  record  as  theirs  wouldn't  we  be  anx- 
ious to  bury  it  ?  If  they  had  such  a  record  as  ours  wouldn't 
they  be  anxious  to  exploit  it  ?  If  behind  us  were  blighted 
faith,  violated  honor,  ruined  homes,  ruined  credit,  wars, 
rebellions,  treasons  —  if  that  was  the  record  that  this 
Republican  party  had  made,  we  would  deafen  our  ears  and 
call  upon  the  mountains  to  fall  upon  and  bury  us  rather 
than  hear  it  denounced  or  commented  upon.  But  the 
Republican  party  glories  to  talk  of  its  record  —  it  is  a  glori- 
ous record  to  talk  about  —  and  the  Democratic  party 
hides  its  head  when  it  is  mentioned,  because  it  is  a  record 
in  the  presence  of  which  every  patriotic  head  ought  to  be 
bowed.  The  party  has  not  changed  ;  its  character  has  not 
changed  ;  its  membership  has  not  changed.  It  is  a  ques- 
tion beyond  and  infinitely  above  the  mere  personal  charac- 
teristics of  the  men  placed  in  nomination. 

"You  are  here  to-night  to  ratify  the  nomination  of 
Hayes  and  Wheeler.  *  Their  nomination  was  wise.  It  is  a 
nomination  which  combined  all  the  elements  of  the  Repub- 
lican party.  It  brought  the  Liberals  back  home.  It 
brought  the  Independents  back  home.  If  there  are  any 


POLITICAL  OKATORY.  157 

Liberals  or  Independents  here  to-night  who  wandered  off 
with  Greeley  in  1872,  I  say  to  them,  *  We  open  wide  the 
door ;  we  bid  you  welcome,  only  don't  do  so  any  more.' 
You  are  all  back,  safely  housed  in  that  glorious  old  Repub- 
lican temple,  the  walls  of  which  are  decked  with  the  most 
heroic  achievements  of  the  past  century,  with  a  record  that 
is  as  enduring  as  time,  and  history  will  never  willingly  let 
die  —  that  splendid  temple  whose  dome  is  lifted  even 
among  the  very  stars,  and  whose  foundations  are  as  secure 
as  the  eternal  rocks ;  you  are  back  again  within  it,  and 
see  that  no  inscription  ever  goes  upon  those  walls,  that 
nothing  is  emblazoned  thereon,  except  such  as  can  shine 
along  with  the  deeds  that  already  adorn  it. 

"  We  are  to-day  a  united,  a  powerful,  and — I  feel  it 
in  the  air  —  a  victorious  party.  It  is  the  same  old  organi- 
zation, with  the  same  old  patriotic  fire  and  nerve  that 
carried  this  great  nationality  through  the  Rebellion  and 
saved  it.  It  is  the  same  party  that  faced  the  results  of  its 
own  logic  as  courageously  as  the  young  David  of  old 
faced  the  great  Goliath.  It  knew  in  its  early  days — and 
it  knows  to-day  —  neither  'variableness  nor  shadow  of 
turning.'  It  found  the  negro  a  slave;  it  made  him  free. 
Making  him  a  free  man,  it  made  him  a  citizen.  Making 
him  a  citizen,  it  clothed  him  with  all  the  rights  and  privi- 
leges of  citizenship,  even  unto  the  power  of  voting.  True 
still  to  its  trust,  what  it  said  in  1868  it  said  again  in  1872. 
No  talk  about  negro  equality  or  competition  could  frighten 
it;  and  to-day  we  have,  through  the  agency  of  the  Republi- 
can party,  a  nationality  —  not  a  mere  aggregation  of  states, 
but  a  nationality,  the  United  States  of  America,  powerful 
enough  and  always  willing  to  protect  the  poorest  and 
meanest  of  its  subjects  even  in  the  remotest  quarter  of  the 
globe  when  his  liberty  is  assailed.  The  old  party  said, 
'  The  men  whom  we  have  made  free  men,  citizens,  voters, 


158  POLITICAL  OEATORY. 

we  will  protect,  if  the  states  in  which  they  live  will  not 
protect  them.  If  the  states  in  which  they  live  will  not 
protect  them  this  General  Government,  which'  we  call  the 
United  States  of  America,,  will  protect  them/  And  that 
promise  the  Republican  party  of  the  United  States,  with 
the  help  of  God,  proposes  to  keep.  Down  to  to-day  we  have 
come.  The  great  debt,  which  hung  like  an  incubus  upon 
us,  is  gradually  melting  away  —  taxation  reduced,  coming 
back  by  slow  degrees,  but  sure,  nevertheless,  to  the  good 
old  times  when  the  basis  of  our  currency  was  specie.  We 
may  look  with  the  most  perfect  and  absolute  confidence 
that,  at  no  very  distant  period  of  time,  with  the  debt 
placed  beyond  all  doubt,  the  integrity  of  the  nation  thor- 
oughly vindicated,  its  faith  absolutely  approved,  our  cur- 
rency recognized  all  over  the  globe,  good  times  come  again, 
spindles  turning  as  they  were  before,  mills  in  full  blast, 
business  prospering,  no  bondman  on  the  soil  of  the  Repub- 
lic —  at  no  very  distant  day,  all  these  splendid  results  we 
may  look  upon  as  the  natural  outcome  of  the  policy  of  the 
Republican  party/' 

The  Democrats,  in  their  St.  Louis  platform,  had  de- 
nounced the  financial  policy  of  the  administration.  Mr. 
Storrs'  answer  was  complete  and  crushing : 

"In  1866,  again  in  1868,  going  into  a  national  canvass, 
they  demanded  the  payment  of  the  government  bonds  in 
greenbacks,  which  would  not  only  have  utterly  destroyed 
the  national  credit,  but  would  have  of  necessity  so  inflated 
the  national  currency  that  the  resumption  of  specie  would 
have  been  eternally  and  everlastingly  postponed.  And  yet 
this  party,  with  the  smell  of  repudiation  on  its  garments, 
with  the  recent  history  of  the  Indiana  and  Ohio  campaigns 
fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  with  their  miserable 
record  behind  them  of  a  steady,  persistent,  willful  op- 
position to  and  interference  with  every  scheme  which 


POLITICAL  ORATOKY.  159 

looked  to  the  reestablishment  of  the  national  credit  and  the 
payment  of  the  national  debt  —  they  denounce  the  Repub- 
lican  party  for  imbecility  or  immorality,  because  it  has 
taken  no  step  in  that  direction  !  Let  us  see  what  the  facts 
are.  What  was  gold  in  18G5?  What  is  gold  to-day?  Have 
we  made  no  advance  toward  resumption  during  the  last 
eleven  years?  This  truthful  platform  says  we  have  not. 
Gold  was  in  the  neighborhood  of  150  in  1865;  it  is  112  or 
thereabouts  to-day.  Is  not  that  along  step  forward?  Is  it 
not  an  immense  stride  in  advance  that  this  growing  nation 
has  taken?  How  is  the  debt?  In  the  eleven  years  of  which 
this  lying  platform  speaks  this  Republican  party,  which  is 
denounced  for  its  imbecility  and  immorality,  has  paid  the 
enormous  sum  of  $456,000,000  of  the  national  debt.  lias  it 
taken  no  step  in  the  way  of  decrease  of  the  expenditures? 
Our  appropriations  have  been  reduced  from  1874  to  1875 
over  $27,000,000.  Our  expenditures  in  1866  were  $520,000,- 
000,  and  in  1873  they  were  $290,000,000.  Gold  reduced  from 
200  to  112;  $456,000,000  of  the  national  debt  paid;  hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  taxation  removed  from  the  shoulders 
of  the  people;  our  bonds  largely  appreciated  in  every 
money-mart  in  the  world;  and  yet  'we,  the  Democratic 
delegates/  in  national  convention  assembled,  solemnly  de- 
nounce and  arraign  the  Republican  party  for  taking  no 
steps  towards  making  the  promise  of  the  legal-tender  notes 
good  ! 

"  Figures  sometimes  become  very  eloquent,  and  in  this 
connection  they  are  eloquent.  Let  me  read  a  little  more 
of  figures.  Our  tariffs  have  been  so  that  the  people  hardly 
feel  the  burden;  every  expense  of  the  government  has  been 
so  removed  that  the  burden  is  but  lightly  felt  to-day.  Our 
internal  taxes  that  would  have  been  paid  in  the  several 
years,  had  the  laws  remained  unchanged,  under  Grant's  ad- 
ministration, calculated  on  the  basis  of  the  taxes  collected 


160  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

in  1868,  would  have  been  in  1869,  $63,919,416;  in  1870, 
$58,295,182;  in  1871,  $92,726,132;  in  1872,  $110,810,083; 
in  1873,  $123,533,307,  etc.  In  1877  there  would  have  been 
collected  on  that  basis  $129,700,000.  This  shows  a  saving, 
an  absolute  decrease  of  the  taxation,  on  an  average  of  $104,- 
696,190  per  year  during  the  last  eight  years'.  And  yet  the 
Republican  party,  which  has  accomplished  those  magnifi- 
cent results,  is  denounced  by  the  '  Democratic  delegates,'  as 
guilty  of  imbecility  and  immorality  !  But  that  is  not  all. 
'  We,  the  Democratic  delegates, '  also  say  that  '  reform  is 
necessary  in  the  scale  of  public  expense.  Our  Federal 
taxation  has  swollen  from  $60,000,000  gold,  in  1860,  to 
$450,000,000  currency,  in  1870.'  I  ask  you  whose  fault  is 
it  that  the  expenses  of  this  government  have  '  swollen  from 
$60,000,000  gold,  in  1860, to  $450,000,000  currency,  in  1870? 
It  is  the  war  that  has  imposed  those  terrible  burdens  upon 
us,  and  while  you  are  sweating  and  groaning  over  them 
Ben  Hill  comes  up  from  Georgia,  and  Henry  Clay  Dean 
from  Iowa,  and  denounce  the  mild  men  of  Kane  county 
because,  in  putting  down  their  rebellion,  they  were  com- 
pelled to  incur  additional  millions  of  expense.  I  say  it  is 
the  cheekiest  platform  ever  witnessed  in  political  history 
or  literature.  Why,  I  would  suppose  that  whenever  the 
occasion  occurred  you  could  not  drive  a  Democrat  into  the 
mention  of  the  tremendous  burdens  under  which  the  peo- 
ple are  laboring,  for  right  back  of  us  looms  up  the  memory 
of  this  great  rebellion  !  Right  back,  fresh  in  our  minds, 
is  the  memory  of  the  war  which  compelled  us  to  raise  the 
expenditures  of  the  country.  It  is  none  of  their  business 
how  much  that  war  cost.  Treated  as  they  deserved  to  have 
been  treated,  as  any  other  nationality  would  have  treated 
them,  this  $157,000,000,  which  the  people  of  this  country 
have  been  compelled  to  "pay  since  that  time  as  a  yearly 
burden  for  putting  down  and  crushing  the  rebellion, 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  161 

would  have  been  shouldered  by  the  Democratic  party  and 
paid  by  them,  even  to  the  confiscation  of  everything  they 
possessed. 

"I  suppose  that  in  the  interests  of  conciliation  we 
must  submit  to  it  without  murmuring;  but  it  does  seem 
hard  that  the  recently  reconstructed  Confederates  assembled 
at  St.  Louis,  and  doing  business  under  the  name,  style, 
and  firm  of  '  We,  the  Delegates  of  the  Democratic  Party/ 
should  denounce  us  because,  as  they  say,  we  expended 
more  money  in  putting  down  their  rebellion  and  whipping 
them  back  into  the  Union  than  was  absolutely  necessary. 

"  We  next  come  to  the  question  of  defalcations.  The 
history  upon  this  point  is  very  short.  One  would  think, 
from  the  clamor  that  is  made,  that  corruption  was  in  every 
branch  of  the  public  service, — that  there  was  not  an  official 
anywhere  who  was  not  guilty  either  of  stealing  public 
funds  or  of  taking  corrupt  money.  This  is  a  great  deal 
bigger  nation  than  it  was  fifty  years  ago.  We  collect  and 
expend  to-day  millions  of  money  where  we  handled  and 
expended  only  thousands  half  a  century  ago.  I  am  one  of 
those  sanguine  men  who  believe  that  this  world  is  all  the 
time  getting  better.  I  believe  that  even  the  Democratic 
party  is  slowly  improving.  It  is  a  great  deal  better  world, 
officially  considered,  than  it  was  in  the  days  of  Old  Hick- 
ory ;  it  has  improved  since  the  days  of  Martin  Van  Buren  ; 
it  is  an  immense  improvement  over  Polk  ;  it  is  a  great  way 
ahead  of  James  Buchanan's  time.  The  fact  of  the  matter 
is  just  this  :  There  is  not  a  first-class  merchant  in  the  city 
of  Aurora  who  does  not  lose  by  little  petty  defalcations  on 
the  actual  amount  of  his  business  a  much  larger  sum  of 
money  than  does  the  United  States  on  the  enormous  ex- 
penditures it  has  been  compelled  to  make  under  Grant's 
administration. '  Now  I  will  read  from  an  authentic  report 
the  history  of  all  those  proceedings  :  '  The  losses  on  every 


102  POLITICAL  OKATORY. 

$1,000  of  disbursements  were,  in  the  administration  of 
Jackson,  $10.55;  VanBuren,  $21.15;  Harrison,  $10.37; 
Polk,  $8.34;  Taylor  and  Fillmore,  $7.64;  Pierce,  $5.86; 
Buchanan,  nearly  $6.98;  Lincoln,  $1.41;  Johnson,  48 
cents;  Grant,  the  first  four  years,  40  cents,  the  second  four 
years,  26  cents/  That  is  the  veritable  record,  and  it  is  an 
immensely  satisfactory  one.  It  is  a  record,  however,  that 
you  would  not  dream  of  amid  the  clamor  and  clatter  made 
about  thievery  in  every  branch  of  the  public  service. 

"We  are  asked  if  we  approve  of  Grant,  and  if  we 
indorse  him.  I  do  not  suddenly  change  my  opinion  of 
men.  I  have  yet  this  to  say :  that  when  the  memory  of 
'  We,  the  Democratic  delegates/  shall  have  perished  in 
oblivion  and  forgetfulness,  when  the  generations  to  come 
will  have  forgotten  that  such  men  ever  lived,  the  real,  solid, 
patriotic  achievements  of  U.  S.  Grant  will,  growing  brighter 
and  brighter  as  the  years  wear  away,  make  a  record  for  him 
that  shall  be  absolutely  imperishable.  In  all  this  terrible 
storm  of  obloquy  —  and  no  man  has  ever  ssffered  more  in 
the  frightful  flood  of  calumny  which  has  been  poured  upon 
us  —  silent  and  patient  and  steady,  has  he  sat,  conscious 
that  the  hearts  of  the  people  beat  with  and  for  him,  and 
conscious  in  his  own  heart  that  he  never  breathed  a  breath 
that  was  not  a  patriotic  one,  and  never  entertained  a  pur- 
pose, so  far  as  this  great  nation  was  concerned ,  that  was 
not  patriotic  as  well. 

"They  speak  of  some  'false  issues':  'The  false  issue 
by  which  they  seek  to  light  anew  the  dying  embers  of  sec- 
tional hate.  .  .  .  All  these  abuses,  wrongs,  and  crhnes, 
the  product  of  sixteen  years'  ascendancy  of  the  Republican 
party/  My  Republican  friends,  will  you  stop  to  think  of 
that  ?  '  All  these  abuses,  wrongs,  and  crimes,  the  product 
of  sixteen  years'  ascendancy  of  the  Republican  party!' 
That  carries  us  away  back  to  1860;  carries  us  back  to  when 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  163 

many  of  us  were  boys ;  carries  us  back  when  the  great 
party  was  new  and  fresh  and  young  ;  carries  us  back  to 
the  time  when,  with  the  watchword  '  Liberty '  on  our  ban- 
ners, we  won  our  first  great  victory  ;  carries  us  back  to  the 
time  of  Lincoln  ;  carries  us  back  to  those  years  of  trouble 
through  which  we  passed  ;  and  the  Democratic  party  speak 
of  that  ascendancy  —  the  ascendancy  of  Lincoln,  his  first 
and  second  term,  the  first  term  of  Grant,  the  whole  history 
of  reconstruction  —  speak  of  that  as  a  history  of  '  abuses, 
wrongs,  and  crimes/  which  'we,  the  Democratic  delegates/ 
purpose  and  intend  to  reform  !  And  yet  they  say,  '  Let 
the  dead  past  bury  its  dead  — forget  these  old  issues/  At 
the  same  time  there  comes  trooping  up  from  the  South, 
from  every  Confederate  cross-roads,  the  bearer  of  a  Con- 
federate heart,  filled  full  of  Confederate  hopes,  believing 
that  the  Lost  Cause  is  finally  won,  flaunting  in  the  face  of 
this  great  nation,  just  out  of  its  terrible  perils,  the  denun- 
ciation of  sixteen  years  of  wrong,  outrage  and  crime  of 
this  Republican  party  !  If  this  Democratic  party,  insult- 
ing the  grandest  history  of  the  nation  in  that  charge,  in- 
sulting the  memory  of  the  heroic  dead  and  the  heroic 
living  as  it  does,  could  take  some  visible  shape,  would  not 
the  strong  Republican  army  of  Kane  County,  with  the  old 
nerve  and  vigor  and  its  old  heart  back  of  it,  feel  like 
grinding  it  into  powder  ?  We  can  bear  taxation ;  our 
treasures  may  be  sunk  into  the  seas,  but  this  glorious 
record,  which  challenges  the  admiration  of  all  the  world, 
and  which  is  the  work  of  a  great  loyal  people,  shall  not  be 
spit  upon  and  defiled.  You  cannot  smite  it  directly,  but, 
carrying  this  infamous  charge  in  your  hearts,  keeping  it 
warm  on  your  lips,  when  the  day  of  November  comes,  go 
up  to  the  polls  and  say  to  them,  '  You,  the  Democratic 
delegates,  that  sought  the  destruction  of  this  great  nation, 
we  repel  your  slander  and  now  bury  you  for  eternity/ 


164  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

"  Now  what  are  the '  false  issues '  ?  Let  us  see.  A  word 
or  two  about  sectional  hate  :  What  is  the  danger  from  sec- 
tional hate — from  what  source  does  that  danger  spring?  You 
have  seen  some  exhibitions  of  it  in  the  past  and  during  the 
present  session  of  Congress,  when  the  old  fires  of  rebellion 
have  been  rekindled,  when  the  old  illustrators  of  planta- 
tion manners  again  appear  on  the  floor  of  the  House,  and 
when  unrepentant  rebellion  flaunts  its  horrid  front  in  the 
face  of  the  people  and  denounces  the  nation  and  the  party 
that  crushed  that  rebellion  to  atoms — Hill,  Lamar,  all  the 
prominent  leaders  of  secession,  back  again  into  the  councils 
of  the  nation  they  sought  to  destroy?  And  in  the  presence 
of  such  magnanimity  as  that  we  have  this  sympathetic 
blubber  about  'bloody  shirt,'  etc.  Do  you  suppose  that  there 
would  have  been  one  prominent  improvement,  national  in 
its  character,  made  had  this  Democratic  party,  which 
to-day  prates  of  reform,  succeeded  since  1860  ?  Contem- 
plate such  a  result  as  their  success,  if  you  can  without  shud- 
dering. Think  of  the  success  of  the  Democratic  party  in 
1864 !  Down  from  its  high  pedestal  our  nation  would 
have  come.  Home  would  have  come  our  conquering 
legions,  with  their  banners  trailing  in  the  dust  and  in  the 
mire  of  defeat !  The  dishonor  and  disruption  of  the 
nationality — that  would  have  been  the  sure  result  had  the 
promises  of  Democratic  reform  been  listened  to  by  the 
people  and  had  their  solicitation  for  public  confidence  met 
with  any  response  in  1864.  Then,  again,  1868.  Con- 
template, if  you  can,  their  success  then.  Every  measure 
for  the  reconstruction  of  the  nation  which  they  sought  to 
destroy  would  have  been  rendered  utterly  fruitless,  our 
gigantic  debt  would  have  been  rendered  still  more  gigantic, 
our  credit  would  have  been  gone,  and  we  would  have  been 
to-day  a  disgraced  and  discredited  nationality  in  the  eyes 
of  the  whole  world.  In  1872,  think  of  the  calamities  that 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  165 

would  have  followed  a  Democratic  triumph,  when  one  of 
their  own  candidates  pronounced  the  reconstructive  meas- 
ures 'revolutionary,  unconstitutional  and  void.'  What 
has  occurred  to  make  the  evil  of  a  Democratic  success  less 
to-day?  What  has  occurred  to  make  the  necessity  of  a 
Republican  triumph  less  imperative  now,  than  it  has  been 
every  hour  since  1860?  The  time  has  not  come  when  this 
ideal  sentiment  of  hand-shaking  shall  take  the  place  of 
that  recognition  of  principles  which  the  great  emergencies 
of  the  occasion  demand.  And  what  has  the  Republican 
platform  said  that  calls  from  the  Democrats  these  re- 
proaches? This  is  all  :  '  We  sincerely  deprecate  all  sec- 
tional feeling  and  tendencies.  We,  therefore,  note  with 
deep  solicitude  that  the  Democratic  party  counts,  as  its 
chief  hope  of  its  success,  upon  the  electoral  vote  of  a  united 
South.'  It  is  its  only  hope.  The  success  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  means  a  united  South,  secured  at  the  expense 
of  the  colored  vote.  It  makes  an  appeal  for  that  southern 
vote  directly,  as  in  the  days  of  old,  to  sectional  prejudices 
and  sectional  hate.  It  means  that  every  newly-made  citi- 
zen shall  be  deprived  of  the  privileges  which  he  is  entitled 
to  under  the  constitution.  I  shall  not  appeal  to  any  sec- 
tional feeling,  but  to  the  broad,  catholic  spirit  of  nation- 
ality. TKe  Republican  party  demands  the  suffrage  of  every 
citizen,  North  and  South,  East  and  West,  black  and  white, 
— every  citizen,  of  whatsoever  race  he  may  originally  have 
been,  who  desires  the  largest,  truest,  broadest  measure  of 
national  prosperity  for  the  land  we  love  so  justly  and  so  well. 
"Now,  about  this  platform:  They  have  lost  none  of 
their  old  differences.  They  are  the  same  old  issues.  It  is 
the  bitter,  intense  spirit  of  state  rights  working  against 
a  distinct  and  united  nationality  that  has  been  waging  war 
for  the  long  years  that  are  passed.  We  stand  upon  the 
threshold  of  a  new  century.  We  will  inaugurate  it  well, 


166  POLITICAL  OUAfORY. 

I  am  sure,  and  say  that  this  nation,  one  and  indivisible, 
shall  be  perpetual. 

"Upon  this  platform  they  have  placed  in  nomination 
Mr.  Samuel  J.  Tilden,  of  the  city  of  New  York,  as  their 
exemplar  and  illustrator  of  reform.  What  has  he  done? 
Who  is  Samuel  J.  Tilden?  One  of  the  most  expert  rail- 
road lawyers  on  the  continent.  That  is  not  a  first-class 
recommendation.  A  man  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  cor- 
poration spirit,  so  completely  that,  like  the  client  he  rep- 
resents, he  has  no  soul.  It  has  ordinarily  been  the  case 
that  physicians  are  prosperous  in  proportion  as  they  have 
cured  their  patients.  He  is  a  great  railroad  doctor — the 
great  corporation  physician;  but  all  precedent  in  his  case 
is  abolished, — the  patients  have  died  and  the  physician  has 
prospered.  Wherever  and  whenever  Samuel  J.  Tilden  has 
been  called  to  stand  by  the  bedside  of  a  sick  railroad 
there  was  a  funeral  in  the  near  future.  He  is  the  father 
of  watered  stock.  He  is  the  great  absorber  and  absorbent. 
He  is  theauthor  of  farm  mortgage  bonds,  and  I  don't  need 
to  explain  to  you  what  those  instruments  mean.  There 
never  yet  came  into  the  door  of  his  office  a  heal  thy  corpor- 
ation which  did  not  hobble  out  from  the  other  door  on 
crutches  and  in  bandages.  All  along,  up  and  down  this 
great  West,  are  the  wrecks  of  disappointed  hopes  and 
blasted  expectations  that  stockholders  and  corporations 
have  had,  when  they  have  passed  through  the  gentle  but 
death-dealing  treatment  of  Tilden. 

"I  might  bring  myself  to  such  a  frame  of  mind  as  to 
vote  for  a  Confederate.  I  can  understand  how  a  man  liv- 
ing in  the  South  might  have  voted  for  the  South  ;  but  not 
until  my  heart  has  ceased  to  beat,  not  until  my  whole  being 
is  changed,  will  I  ever,  on  any  ticket,  nor  under  any  cir- 
cumstances, cast  my  suffrage  for  a  man  living  in  the 
North,  who  in  1864,  denounced  the  war  as  an  experiment, 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  iG? 

as  a  failure,  and  abjectly  and  meanly  sued  for  peace  !  I 
follow  him  still  further,  back  to  the  state  of  New  York  — 
worse  than  that,  back  to  the  city  of  New  York  —  back  to 
the  embrace  of  Hoffman  and  Tweed  • —  back  to  the  associa- 
tions he  seemed  to  love  so  well.  Chairman  of  the  central 
committee,  he  approved  and  aided  in  the  most  stupendous 
frauds  upon  the  rights  of  franchise  ever  committed  by  any 
party, —  a  great  fraud,  which  wrested  the  state  of  New 
York  from  the  Republicans  to  whom  it  belonged,  and 
polled  in  four  wards  over  20,000  fraduflent  votes.  This 
was  done  under  the  direction  of  the  modern  reformer,  the 
friend  of  peace  in  1864,  Samuel  J.  Tilden  !  I  go  still 
further.  The  gigantic  robberies  of  that  great  ring  had 
finally  excited  the  alarm  of  the  whole  nation.  During  the 
time  when  millions  and  millions  were  being  shamelessly 
plundered  from  the  people  of  New  York,  the  chairman  of 
the  state  central  committee,the  recipient  of  Tweed's  bounty, 
was  curiously  and  marvelously  silent.  But  the  Republican 
press,  Republican  speakers, the  Republican  party,denounced 
and  denounced  again  and  again  those  gigantic  frauds. 
A  great  newspaper  brought  them  to  light ;  exposure  came; 
the  lightnings  of  public  wrath  visited  the  head  of  Tweed 
and  his  gang.  When  escape  from  detection  was  no  longer 
possible,  then,  from  behind  the  loopholes  of  his  safe  retreat, 
from  behind  his  barricade  of  law  books  and  railroad  bonds, 
Tilden  comes  forth  as  a  patriotic  reformer,  and  demands 
the  punishment  of  Boss  Tweed  !  The  Republican  carriage 
was  all  ready,  and  he  jumped  in  and  rode  !  Is  he  entitled 
to  the  credit  ?  As  I  said  the  other  night,  the  whole  his- 
tory is  in  a  nutshell.  Tweed  was  tried  by  a  Republican 
judge,  before  a  Republican  jury,  prosecuted  by  a  Republi- 
can attorney-general,  convicted  in  Republican  style,  sent 
to  a  Democratic  jail,  in  charge  of  a  Democratic  jailer,  and 
ran  away  in  true  Democratic  fashion. 


168  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

"  Mr.  Tilden  claims  in  the  little  Pecksniffian  speech  he 
made  at  Albany,  that  he  has  had  great  experience  in  ad- 
ministrative reform,  and  there  must  be  a  reform  in  the 
civil  service.  Well,  how,  Mr.  Tilden,  how?  We  want 
a  reform,  not  in  salaries,  we  want  a  reform  in  the  men ; 
and,  having  a  reform  in  the  men,  we  want  reform  in  the 
methods  of  their  selection  and  appointment.  I  put  this 
question  squarely  and  fairly  to  you:  'Do  you  think  that, 
with  that  embodied  corporation  at  the  head  of  our  nation, 
and  with  the  woods  full  of  the  Confederates  and  Democrats 
flying  to  the  capital  for  an  office,  there  would  be  any  im- 
provement? What,  in  the  name  of  God,  would  be  the  per- 
sonnel of  the  civil  service  that  would  be  picked  out  of  that 
measley  crowd?  And  it  is  out  of  that  crowd  that  Tilden 
would  have  to  select.  They  have  tried  the  operation  in 
their  Confederate  congress;  and  see  what  an  exhibition  they 
made  of  themselves!  Why,  Washington  was  absolutely 
alive  with  men  who  were  looking  for  offices,  because  they 
supposed,  there  being  a  Confederate  House  of  Kepresenta- 
tives,  the  Lost  Cause  was  won.  Think  of  a  Democratic 
triumph  all  along  the  line,  and  what  the  results  must  be  ! 
We  have  seen  this  Democratic  crowd  in  1864.  The  Satur- 
day before  the  great  national  convention  which  nominated 
McClellan  met,  this  city  was  full  of  them.  I  made  a 
speech  over  there  in  the  park,  on  the  same  stand  with  Dick 
Oglesby  and  John  Farnsworth.  I  started  to  go  home  to 
Chicago  Sunday  morning,  and  what  a  sight  there  was! 
Every  fellow  dressed  in  gray;  breezes,  in  comparison  with 
which  the  odors  from  Bridgeport  were  sweet  as  those  from 
a  bank  of  flowers,  came  from  every  car.  Train  after  train, 
the  engines  all  doubled  up,  and  not  a  seat  to  be  had  on 
the  cars.  They  were  the  Democratic  delegates  on  their 
way  to  the  convention.  After  I  arrived  in  Chicago,  a 
good  old  Democrat  said  to  me:  'I  was  very  much  surprised 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  169 

a  little  while  ago.  I  saw  a  great  mass  of  men  going  down 
Wabash  Avenue,  and  I  thought  it  was  a  procession  of  rebel 
prisoners  on  there  for  exchange,  but  I'll  be  damned  if  it 
wasn't  the  Democratic  delegation  from  Missouri.' 

"In  the  presence  of  that  same  savory  crowd  Samuel  J. 
Tilden  appeared  in  1864.  Some  fellows  had  an  ear  bitten 
off  in  a  joint  debate;  men  with  their  noses  broken  in  an 
election  contest;  fellows  with  short  hair.  Those  men 
came  on  with  banners  with  doves  upon  them,  engaged  in 
the  olive  branch  business,  and  all  swearing  for  peace.  At 
the  head  of  this  crowd  in  1804,  was  Samuel  J.  Tilden. 
The  crowd  has  not  changed,  and  the  leader  of  the  Democ- 
racy has  not  changed  one  single  bit  since  that  time.  I 
think  there  can  be  nothing  more  suicidal  than  to  intrust 
into  the  hands  of  these  men,  who  sought  the  destruction 
of  our  national  life,  the  direction  of  our  national  interests. 
I  believe  in  this  nation.  I  know  what  it  is, — it  is  the 
sacred  custodian  of  the  priceless  treasure  of  free  govern" 
ment  for  all  peoples  and  all  nationalties.  I  hope  to  see  it 
endure  forever.  I  cherish  in  my  very  heart  of  hearts  the 
memory  of  the  great  heroes  who  have  lived  and  died,  the 
great  leaders  of  our  great  party.  I  hope  to  carry  in  my 
heart  as  the  most  sacred  thing  which  it  bears  an  intense, 
indulging,  never-ending  love  of  this  great  nation,  em- 
balmed, sanctified,  and  glorified  as  it  has  been  by  the  blood 
of  so  many  hundreds  and  thousands  of  noble  men;  and  I 
believe  in  my  very  soul  that  this  nation  can  be  saved,  and 
that,  with  all  its  faults  and  shortcomings,  this  Republican 
party,  whose  cause  I  to-night  advocate,  is  the  real  custo- 
dian of  our  national  honor  and  integrity.  All  hail,  then, 
the  great  cause!  We  stand  upon  the  threshold  of  this  great 
contest.  Let  the  old  fires  be  everywhere  relighted;  let  the 
old  spirit  be  again  rekindled,  and  let  the  word  come  up  from 
the  old  leaders,  as  in  the  olden  time,  ' Attention!  forward !'" 


170  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

At  Detroit,  the  Kepublicans  opened  the  campaign 
by  tbe  dedication  of  a  large  central  wigwam  on  the 
24th  cf  August.  In  compliance  with  an  invitation  from 
the  State  Central  Committee,  Mr.  Storrs  was  present, 
and  addressed  one  of  the  largest  and  liveliest  indoor 
meetings  ever  witnessed  in  the  State  of  Michigan.  Re- 
ferring to  the  platform  adopted  by  the  Democrats  at 
St.  Louis,  he  said : 

"  Here  are  the  Democratic  delegates  from  all  parts  of 
the  country  representing  the  Lost  Cause,  denouncing  a 
period  of  crimes  and  abuses  which  the  Democratic  party 
propose  to  right.  These  sixteen  years  embraced  four  years 
of  war,  four  years  of  the  administration  of  Lincoln  and 
eight  years  of  the  administration  of  General  Grant.  Sancti- 
fied by  the  blood  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  brave  men, 
these  years  are  denounced  by  such  men  as  Ben  Hill,  Lamar 
and  others.  If  there  is  a  particle  of  the  old  spirit  in  De- 
troit I  know  that  you  will  consider  this  an  insult.  Tilden's 
letter  of  acceptance  and  the  St.  Louis  platform  are  full  of 
accusations  of  the  Republican  party  and  are  much  alike  in 
this  respect;  they  are  shocked  at  its  thefts  and  immorality, 
and  promise  peace  and  good  times.  If  the  government 
was  turned  over  to  the  Democratic  party  it  would  be  in- 
deed the  time  when  the  lion  and  the  lamb  shall  lie  down 
together,  with  the  very  small  difference  that  the  lamb 
would  be  on  the  inside.  I  do  not  propose  to  defend  the 
Republican  party.  Wherever  stealing  has  been  done,  it  has 
been  done  by  individuals,  irrespective  of  the  principles  of 
the  Republican  party,  and  those  individuals  are  the  ones 
to  blame.  The  Democratic  party  is  a  robber  as  an  organi- 
zation, and  I  say  to  you  that  the  stealing  and  corrup- 
tion in  the  Republican  party  are  too  small  to  be  noticed 
when  compared  with  a  party  that  Avould  eteal  arms,  steal 
states,  and  that  finally  attempted  to  steal  the  whole  nation. 


POLITICAL  OIlATOR-i.      .  1?1 

Precisely  how  the  Democratic  party  propose  to  carry  out 
the  reforms  about  which  they  talk  so  much  they  do  not 
tell  us. 

"  The  Democrats  propose  to  reform  the  civil  service, 
but  how  ?  Tilden  says  by  selecting  a  higher  grade  of  men  ; 
but  from  where  ?  Where  will  you  find  them  ?  The  offices 
must  be  filled  by  either  Democrats  or  Republicans.  If  you 
want  loyal  men,  men  of  refinement,  men  of  culture,  the 
Republican  party  is  full  of  them.  At  Washington  this 
winter  we  have  seen  the  kind  of  men  that  the  Democrats 
propose  to  reform  the  civil  service  with,  the  emissaries  of 
the  Lost  Cause.  Culture  !  Men  who  can't  tell  whether  the 
Saviour  of  mankind  was  crucified  at  Calvary  or  shot  at 
Bunker  Hill.  Why  the  roads  through  the  country  are  full 
of  tramps,  Democratic  office-seekers,  hoofing  it  from  Wash- 
ington. Another  instance  :  What  a  great  moral  city  is  the 
City  of  New  York!  How  piously  the  Democrats  there  can 
stuff  a  ballot  box,  and  count  this  man  or  that  man  out. 
How  very  quietly  they  go  about  doing  good  —  so  quietly 
that  no  one  ever  hears  of  it. 

"Who  is  the  Democratic  candidate?  Samuel  J.  Til- 
den.  Some  people  say  that  they  shall  yote  for  him  because 
they  are  tired  of  machine  politics.  Why,  gentlemen,  Sam- 
uel J.  Tilden  is  the  perfection  of  a  machine.  He  is  a 
reaper  and  mower  combined,  a  self-sharpener,  and  has 
never  been  anything  else.  They  tell  us  that  Mr.  Tilden  is 
a  patriotic  man,  but  how  very  quietly  he  went  about  saving 
the  Union,  his  left  hand  on  the  Chicago  convention,  and 
his  right  hand  didn't  know  anything  about  it.  Here  was  a 
war  where  millions  of  men  met  on  the  field  of  battle,  where 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  lives  were  lost,  where  an  immense 
amount  of  treasure  was  expended;  and  I  ask  you,  was 
there  a  man  about  whose  position  there  could  be  a  particle 
of  doubt  ?  Why,  every  schoolboy  in  the  land  was  able  to 


172  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

define  his  position  in  regard  to  the  war,  but,  skulking 
behind  his  law  books  and  railroad  bonds,  Samuel  J.  Tilden 
was  not  heard  from.  We  all  have  the  right  to  say  to  him, 
you  were  no  obscure  country  lawyer,  why  could  you  not  at 
once  say,  '  God  speed  to  the  good  cause.  God  speed  to  the 
noble  soldiers/ 

"  They  say  he  is  a  reformer,  and  that  he  unearthed  the 
frauds  of  Tweed.  Tilden  and  Tweed  were  personal  friends 
for  many  years,  and  long  after  all  Tweed's  villainies  had 
been  exposed  by  the  Republican  press,  Tilden  met  him  in 
convention  and  took  him  up  as  a  political  equal  and  friend. 
After  the  Republican  party  and  the  Republican  press  had 
exposed  Tweed,  Tilden  came  to  the  front  and  rolled  into 
office  as  Governor  of  New  York  on  the  tide  that  swamped 
Tweed.  Now,  Tweed  was  tried  before  a  Republican  judge, 
by  a  Republican  prosecuting  attorney,  and  convicted  by  a 
Republican  jury,  but  he  escaped  from  a  Democratic  sheriff. 
It  is  truly  wonderful  to  mark  the  progress  of  reform.  Con- 
fined in  a  small  room  not  much  larger  than  this,  poorly 
furnished  with  marble-top  table  and  tapestried  through- 
out, eating  but  five  or  six  meals  per  day,  and  seeing  only 
fifty  or  sixty  visitors  each  day,  Tweed  pined  for  a  sight  of 
his  wife ;  he  never  loved  her  so  much  in  his  life  before. 
The  jailor  took  him  in  a  carriage  to  his  humble  dwelling, 
in  that  pauper  street,  Fifth  Avenue,  and  he  went  in  at  the 
front  door.  From  that  moment  to  the  present  time  the 
places  that  knew  him  know  him  no  more  forever. 

"  Tilden  is  reform  governor  of  New  York  ;  he  has 
broken  the  canal  ring.  Eighty  thousand  dollars  has  been 
expended,  three  men  indicted,  one  of  whom  was  convicted 
and  is  now  imprisoned  out  of  doors  on  bail.  This  is  the 
great  ring-smasher.  Now  I  suppose  you  all  know  that  if 
there  is  anything  that  will  make  a  man  love  his  fellow-men 
all  through  and  through,  it  is  to  consolidate  railroads. 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  173 

That  is  where  Samuel  J.  Tilden  has  proved  himself  a  suc- 
cess. He  is  the  great  railroad  physician,  and  whenever  he 
has  stood  at  the  bedside  of  a  railroad  there  has  been  a 
railroad  funeral  in  that  immediate  neighborhood  very  soon 
thereafter.  Generally,  you  know,  a  physician's  success 
depends  upon  his  ability  to  save  his  patients,  and  it  seems 
strange  that  when  railroads  have  died  on  his  hands  Tilden 
has  achieved  great  success.  He  is  the  author  of  watered 
stock  and  the  finisher  of  blighted  railroad  stock.  There  is 
hardly  a  farmer  in  this  broad  land  but  that  has  a  little  piece 
of  paper  stowed  away  somewhere  that  he  occasionally 
takes  out,  and,  as  he  looks  at  it  and  mourns  its  worthless- 
ness,  he  can  trace  it  to  the  great  reform  candidate,  Samuel 
J.  Tilden." 

On  his  return  home,  Mr.  Storrs  accepted  an  invita- 
tion to  address  the  Republicans  of  Freeport,  and  ••  ful- 
filled his  engagement  on  the  15th  of  September.  Thfc 
announcement  that  he  was  to  speak,  and  the  meeting 
of  the  Congressional  Convention  in  the  afternoon,  had 
filled  the  town  with  people,  and  the  large  hall  which 
had  been  secured  for  the  meeting  could  not  hold  the 
crowds,  Republican  and  Democrat,  who  thronged  to  hear 
him.  He  said : 

"  I  by  no  means  feel  in  addressing  the  magnificent  audi- 
ence here  to-night  assembled  that  I  am  among  strangers, 
or  that  I  am  speaking  to  strangers.  1  have  known  Free- 
port,  its  people,  its  surroundings,  it  patriotic  spirits,  its 
loyal  impluses,  for  the  last  sixteen  years.  I  am  somewhat 
renewing  to-night  an  acquaintance  commenced  sixteen 
years  ago,  and  I  am  renewing  that  acquaintance  on  an  oc- 
casion very  much  like  that  under  which  we  met  when  the 
acquaintance  began.  It  is  curious  to  me,  and,  perhaps, 
may  be  so  to  you,  to  see  how  long  a  time  it  takes  to  wipe 


174  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

out  old  political  issues,  and  to  substitute  in  their  place  en- 
tirely new  ones.  We  have  all  waited,  watched,  and  hoped 
for  the  day  to  come  when  bygones  should  be  really  by- 
gones,—  when  the  past  with  all  its  dreadful  memories 
could  be  erased, —  when  all  the  troubles  which  we  had 
overcome  would  be  behind  us  as  a  bad  dream;  when,  with 
new  issues,  new  parties,  new  organizations,  this  great 
nation,  starting  afresh  upon  its  career,  might  say  to  itself 
that,  whatever  else  may  happen,  the  past  is  safe,  and  to 
the  future  alone  are  we  called  to  look.  That  time,  every 
heart  that  beats  before  me  to-night  tells  me,  has  not  yet 
arrived.  Bygones  are  not  bygones.  The  past  is  not  alto- 
gether past.  The  past  is  not  quite  secure.  We  do  not 
stand  to-day  a  nation  with  that  past  absolutely  safe,  with 
the  broad  future  before  us  absolutely  untrammeled  by  any 
history  which  lies  behind  us.  We  confront  to-day  —  and 
it  is  one  of  the  wonders  of  this  century  —  the  same  great 
political  organization,  consisting  of  the  same  membership, 
inspired  by  the  same  feelings,  devoted  to  the  same  pur- 
poses, holding  precisely  the  same  ideas,  that  that  party 
held  sixteen  years  ago, when  it  organized  treason  and  sought 
the  destruction  of  the  national  existence — that  we  met  and 
defeated  in  1860.  We  had  hoped  —  and  you  all  had  hoped  — 
that,  long  before  the  centennial  year  had  arrived,  this 
Democratic  party,  from  which  the  cause  of  human  free- 
dom and  of  good  government  everywhere  had  suffered  so 
much,  would  have  utterly  passed  out  of  existence  and 
would  have  vexed  us  no  more.  You  had  hoped  that  all 
those  old  political  ideas  on  which  that  party  was  based, 
and  to  maintain  and  enforce  which  it  organized  a  gigantic 
rebellion,  would  have  been  buried  in  oblivion  and  abso- 
lutely be  regarded  among  the  things  of  the  past.  But,  you 
are  doomed  to  disappointment.  In  the  year  of  grace  1876 
this  same  organization,  whose  record  is  a  record  of  broken 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  175 

promises  and  violated  pledges, —  this  same  political  organi- 
zation, which  has  .carried  within  itself  all  the  most  dan- 
gerous political  heresies  that  have  threatened  the  destruc- 
tion of  our  national  life, —  is  proud,  asserting,  dominant, 
demanding  that  the  custody  of  the  affairs  of  the  nation 
whose  destruction  it  sought  shall  be  by  a  loyal  people  turned 
over  to  its  keeping.  And  the  solemn  question  which  you 
are  to  answer  to-night,  is  this:  Shall  those  who  would 
have  murdered  this  nation,  the  grandest  on  the  face  of  the 
earth,  within  eleven  short  years  after  their  attempt  had 
failed,  shall  they  be  called  back  into  power,  and  intrusted 
with  the  life  and  integrity  of  that  nation  whose  destruc- 
tion they  sought?  This  is  the  question  which  is  constantly 
recurring.  I  am  told  that  these  are  bygones,  and  that  we 
are  making  the  same  old  speeches  that  we  made  in  the 
years  that  are  past.  This  question  of  loyalty,  of  devotion 
to  the  national  existence,  is  as  old  as  virtue,  and  the  vices 
of  the  Democratic  party  are  as  old  as  sin.  As  well  might 
you  ask  a  preacher  to  hush  his  voice  and  let  the  pulpit  go 
untenanted  because  preachers  before  him  have  denounced 
sin,  as  to  ask  Republicans  to  hush  their  voices  and  close 
their  meetings  as  long  as  a  Democrat  lives  above  ground. 

"I  am  in  favor  of  conciliation  —  thoroughly  and  alto- 
gether in  favor  of  conciliation.  The  simple  question  in 
my  mind  is  who  shall  be  conciliated  ?  I  turn  to  the  old 
Republicans  on  this  platform  ;  I  turn  to  the  old  Republi- 
cans in  the'body  of  the  hall ;  I  ask  them  if  they  remem- 
ber the  days  when  we  started  out  in  our  procession,  twenty- 
two  years  ago  ;  I  ask  them  if  they  remember  how  small  a 
procession  it  was  ;  that  we  went  afoot ;  that  the  going  was 
bad  ;  that  our  feet  were  sore  ;  that  the  winds  blew  through 
every  hole  in  our  garments  ;  that  the  skies  were  inclement, 
and  that  there  were  conservative  gentlemen  standing  on 
the  side-walks  heaving  mud  at  the  procession  as  it  passed  ? 


176  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

I  ask  them  if  they  remember  the  days  when  the  old  proces- 
sion grew,  when  it  came  up  a  great  party,  when  it  crystal- 
lized about  itself  all  the  holiest  objects,  the  loftiest  impulses, 
the  best  purposes  of  the  country,  and  called  itself  the 
Bepublican  party  ?  I  ask  them  if  they  remember  when 
that  great  procession  swelled  in  volume  so  that  it  embraced 
the  whole  continent,  when  it  met  a  rebellion  in  arms,  when 
it  throttled  the  life  out  of  it,  when  it  saved  the  great  nation  ? 
I  ask  them  if  they  remember  when  these  loyal  people  buried 
their  loval  sons  in  every  valley  and  on  every  hill-side  in  the 
land  ?  I  ask  them  if  they  remember  the  thousands  and 
millions  of  dollars  and  the  countless  thousands  of  lives 
sacrificed  that  this  nation  might  live  ?  I  ask  them,  finally, 
if  they  remember,  when  peace  came,  and  when,  to  protect 
the  national  credit,  another  war,  quite  as  great  in  its  pro- 
portions as  the  first,  to  vindicate  and  maintain  the  national 
credit  has  been  fought  and  won  against  the  same  adver- 
saries ;  and  I  ask  them  to-day  if,  when  the  victory  is 
finally  achieved,  we  may  not  be  permitted  to  sit  down  by 
the  hearth-stones  which  we  have  saved,  and  ask  that  the 
robbers  and  plunderers  of  the  national  honor  shall  concil- 
iate us  ? 

"I  speak  of  the  Democratic  party.  It  comes  to  you  to- 
day asking  that  the  confidence  which  you  withdrew  from  it 
twenty  years  ago  nearly  shall  be  again  restored  to  it.  What 
has  it  done  ?  Twenty  years  ago  this  same  Democratic 
party  made  human  sympathy  a  curse,  and  made  charity  an 
indictable  offense.  Twenty  years  ago  this  same  Democratic 
party,  which  to-day  demands  the  suffrages  of  the  people, 
organized  itself  into  a  party  which  said  the  sunshine  of 
freedom  shall  be  local,  and  the  black  shadow  of  slavery 
shall  be  national.  This  same  party  organized  secession  in 
the  war,  and,  having  failed  in  meeting  reason  by  the  bullet 
and  argument  by  the  bludgeon,  took  its  political  principles. 


POLITICAL   ORATOKY.  177 

to  the  last  field  to  which  those  questions  are  ever  referred. 
It  carried  them  into  battle  ;  its  banners  went  down  in 
defeat ;  its  hopes  were  crushed  ;  its  arms  were  defeated. 
If,  when  Lee's  armies  surrendered  at  Appomattox,  they  did 
not  surrender  the  damnable  heresies  out  of  which  the  war 
grew,  the  war  was  a  failure  as  base  and  shameless  as  Til- 
den  declared  it  in  1804. 

I  supposed,  we  all  supposed,  that  when  their  armies 
were  annihilated  their  political  ideas  were  annihilated  as 
well.  Has  there  been  any  conversion  ?  Point  me  to  a 
single  Democrat  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  big  or 
little,  who  to-day  will  tell  you  that  he  entertains  on  the 
question  of  state  sovereignty  an  opinion  in  the  slightest 
degree  different  from  that  which  he  held  when  the  war 
began.  Point  me  to  a  single  leading  Democrat  North, 
prominent  in  politics,  who  was  a  Democrat  when  the  w.ar 
began,  who  to-day  will  tell  you  that  he  believes  on  the 
question  of  state  'sovereignty  one  iota  differently  from 
what  he  did  sixteen  years  ago.  Is  it  possible,  then,  that  a 
party  made  up  of  the  same  members,  each  individual  mem- 
ber holding  the  same  belief  that  he  held  twenty  years 
ago, —  that  the  party  has  changed  when  there  has  been  no 
change  in  the  opinions  of  its  individual  members  ? 

"In  18G1,  Samuel  J.  Tilden,  with  James  Buchanan, 
declared  as  his  opinion  that,  although  a  state  had  no  right 
to  secede,  the  general  government  had  no  right  to  coerce 
it  into  the  Union.  Has  Tilden  changed  ?  Is  there  a 
Democrat  in  the  whole  length  and  breadth  of  the  land 
that  has  changed  ?  Not  one.  If  no  individual  member 
has  changed,  how,  then,  has  the  party  changed  ?  If  they 
have  changed,  if  they  have  revolutionized  that  belief,  if 
they  are  now  honestly  of  the  opinion  that  this  nation  is  one 
and  indivisible ;  that  the  right  of  secession  does  not  exist ; 
that  there  is  inherent  in  the  general  government  the  power 


178  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

to  crush  out  the  attempt  whenever  it  is  made  ;  if,  to  follow 
this  out,  there  is  a  single  Democrat  who  has  to-day  reached 
those  conclusions,  there  is  but  one  way  in  which  the  gen- 
uineness of  his  change  of  conviction  can  be  demonstrated, 
and  that  is  by  leaving  the  Democratic  party  and  joining 
the  ranks  of  Republicanism.  AVhen  the  heathen  ceases  to 
worship  his  idol  of  block  or  stone  as  the  real  God  — when 
he  believes  in  the  divinity  of  the  Saviour  and  in  the  truths 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  —  he  doesn't  stay  among  the 
heathen,  but  joins  the  Christian  church.  And  if  these 
Democrats  are  converted,  I  have  this  advice  to  give  them  : 
Get  out  from  among  your  heathen  associations,  stop  wor- 
shiping your  images  of  brick  and  of  stone,  change  your 
soiled  and  battered  clothing  of  Democracy,  wash  yourselves 
clean,  put  on  a  new  shirt,  come  into  the  ranks  of  Republi- 
canism, don  its  garments,  and  thus  prove  the  genuineness 
of  the  change  of  heart  which  you  claim  to  have  experienced. 

"  This  Republican  party  of  ours  comes  to  you  to-day 
with  substantially  the  same  membership.  It  is  the  same 
party,  with  its  unbroken  record  of  glory  that  made  four 
millions  of  chattels  freemen  and  citizens.  It  found  the 
old  structure  of  state  filled  with  the  rotten  and  decayed 
timbers  of  African  servitude.  It  removed  them  all  amid 
the  thunders  of  war,  and  replaced  them  with  the  ever- 
lasting granite  of  freedom.  This  same  Republican  party 
that  crowded  into  four  short  years  of  war  the  most 
colossal  and  resplendent  results  ever  recorded  in  history, 
confronted  at  its  close  a  vast  debt,  and  honestly,  manfully, 
faithfully,  it  has  pledged  the  credit  of  the  whole  nation 
that  it  shall  be  paid,  and  reduced  it  more  than  $400,000,- 
000  of  money. 

"It  has  lifted  millions  of  dollars  of  tax  from  the 
shoulders  of  the  people.  It  has  decreased  by  millions  of 
dollars  the  national  expenditures.  It  has  increased  by  mil- 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  179 

lions  of  money  the  national  revenues;  and  this  brings  its 
history  down  to  to-day. 

"  But  while  I  am  discussing  questions  of  this  character, 
some  Democrats  tell  me,  '  Why,  those  are  old  issues/  '  The 
freedom  of  the  slave/  they  say,  l  is  secure  beyond  all  ques- 
tions. His  citizenship,  as  you  have  said,  is  imbedded  in 
the  constitution/  His  right  to  vote,  they  tell  us,  is 
secure.  And  when  they  make  that  line  of  argument  they 
seem  to  think  that  the  whole  discussion  is  closed.  Right 
here,  let  us  pause  and  think.  Let  me  suggest  to  you  that 
there  is  hardly  a  clause  in  our  Federal  constitution  which  is 
self-enforcing.  We  have  a  provision  that  there  shall  be 
Federal  courts,  and  I  think  I  see  a  conservative  Democrat  — 
one  of  the  old-time  Democrats  who  respects  the  consti- 
tution beyond  all  measure  —  stand  with  his  toes  turned  out 
and  his  back  to  the  fire,  and  with  his  hand  under  his  coat- 
tail,  saying.  '  I  am  in  favor  of  the  constitution  —  I  am 
in  favor  of  that  clause  which  provides  for  Federal  courts, 
but  I  am  not  in  favor  of  this  congressional  legislation  by 
which  the  court  is  created.* 

"We  have  these  constitutional  amendments  by  which 
citizenship  and  freedom  are  both  conferred  upon  the  negro, 
but  they  are  not  self -enforcing.  Each  one  of  these  amend- 
ments provides  that  they  shall  be  enforced  by  appro- 
priate legislation.  Now,  what  is  that  appropriate  legisla- 
tion, and  what  is  its  precise  value?  Let  me  tell  you,  if  you 
will  strike  out  all  congressional  legislation  upon  the  sub- 
ject and  leave  the  amendments  standing  alone,  they  are  as 
idle  for  all  useful  purposes  'as  a  painted  ship  upon  a 
painted  ocean/  The  Republican  party  is  a  practical  party. 
It  imbedded  those  great  rights  in  the  constitution.  It  took 
them  down  to  the  solid  rock  upon  which  the  nation  lives, 
and  it  said.  '  We  will  make  these  no  idle  gifts.  These 
shall  be  no  treacherous  benefactions.  We  mean  precisely 


180  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

what  we  say/  We  gave  freedom  to  the  slave.  It  were 
base  not  to  protect  him  in  its  enjoyment.  We  gave  citi- 
zenship to  the  negro.  It  were  base  not  to  protect  him  in 
the  enjoyment  of  all  its  privileges.  We  gave  him  the  right 
to  vote.  It  were  outrageous  if  it  were  an  idle  gift.  AVe 
protect  him  in  the  full  and  complete  enjoyment  of  the 
right,  and  therefore  congress  has  by  legislation  provided 
that,  whenever  any  privileges  thus  conferred  shall  be  inter- 
fered with,  this  great  central  power  which  we  call  the 
general  government  may  intervene,  and  may  protect  the 
negro  in  the  enjoyment  of  every  privilege  which  the  con- 
stitutional amendment  confers  upon  him.  It  says  this: 
'  We  give  you  by  the  constitution  the  right  to  citizenship 
and  to  vote,  and  more  by  legislation.  This  is  no  ideal 
gift.  If,  when  you  go  to  deposit  your  ballot,  that  right  is 
interfered  with,  if  the  state  in  which  you  live  cannot  or 
will  not  protect  you,  this  great  government  will  protect 
you.  If  you  are  interfered  with  by  force,  we  will  protect 
you  by  force.  If  armed  men  threaten  you  in  the  enjoyment 
of  any  of  those  privileges,  armed  men  shall  march  to  your 
support,  and  assert  your  full  and  complete  enjoyment  of 
them/  This  is  what  the  Democratic  party  calls  centraliza- 
tion. 

"  It  is  a  centralization  of  which  I  am  enthusiastically 
in  favor.  I  would  give  nothing  for  that  government  so 
utterly  powerless  and  helpless  that  it  could  not,  even  at  the 
cost  of  war,  at  the  extremes  of  the  globe,  protect  the  mean- 
est and  poorest  of  its  citizens  when  insulted  and  outraged. 
I  would  spit  upon  that  government  which  would  not  at 
home  protect,  even  at  the  cost  of  war,  the  meanest  and 
poorest  of  its  citizens  in  the  enjoyment  of  every  privilege 
which  the  constitution  conferred  upon  him.  And  the  man 
to-day  who  is  in  favor  of  the  constitutional  amendments, 
and  is  opposed  to  that  legislation  by  which  they  shall  be 


I 


rOLITICAL   OKATORY.  181 

enforced,  is  a  coward  and  a  sneak,  and  fittingly  belongs  to 
the  Democratic  party. 

"  I  will  pursue  this  subject  still  further.  Let  me  illus- 
trate a  little.  I  think  I  am  familar  with  this  Democratic 
party.  I  have  read  its  history.  It  has  been  burned  into 
me  and  into  you.  During  the  war  all  through  the  North, 
you  found  magnificent  Democrats  who  were  in  favor  of  a 
vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war.  Certainly  they  were. 
They  were  in  favor  of  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war, 
but  were  opposed  to  drafting  a  single  man.  They  were 
in  favor  of  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  but  were  op- 
posed to  buying  a  gun.  They  were  in  favor  of  the  sup- 
pression of  treason,  but  opposed  to  invading  what  they  call 
a  sovereign  state;  opposed  to  secession,  and  opposed  to 
putting  it  down;  opposed  to  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  and 
opposed  to  preventing  anybody  dissolving  it. 

"One  more  question  on  this  point.  You  have  seen 
one-half  of  a  Confederate  congress.  They  cannot  disturb 
the  amendments.  But  place  the  whole  of  the  affairs  of 
this  nation  in  the  hands  of  the  Democratic  party,  and 
where  do  you  suppose,  within  thirty  days  after  attaining 
power — where  do  you  suppose  every  single  syllable  of  legis- 
lation will  be  left  that  was  intended  to  enforce  the  provis- 
ions of  those  amendments?  Away  back  in  1863,  in  the 
Democratic,  patriotic,  honestly-governed  City  of  New 
York,  there  was  inaugurated  a  little  one-horse  Democratic 
rebellion.  The  draft  law  had  been  enforced.  Seymour, 
Tilden,  all  good  Democrats,  had  assured  the  rank  and  file 
that  all  that  legislation  was  revolutionary,  unconstitutional, 
and  void.  If  there  ever  was  a  man  that  loved  the  constitu- 
tion and  talked  about  it  all  the  time,  that  carried  it  about 
with  -him,  and  slept  with  it  under  his  pillow,  it  is  one  of 
the  meek  and  lowly  followers  of  John  Morrissey  and  Isaiah 
Rynders.  If  there  ever  was  a  class  of  men  up  in  science 


182  POLITICAL   OHATORY. 

who  denied  privileges  to  the  negroes  on  the  ground  that 
they  were  not  men,  and  that  their  astragali  differed  from 
that  of  a  white  man,  it  was  the  learned  savans  whose  noses 
have  been  broken  and  whose  ears  have  been  bitten  off  in 
those  discussions  in  the  City  of  New  York.  At  that  time 
these  good,  zealous  Democrats  really  believed  in  the  bottom 
of  their  patriotic  souls  that  the  constitution  had  been  vio- 
lated by  the  draft  law,  and  organized  a  mob  and  brought  on 
a  great  riot,  in  the  midst  of  which  Horatio  Seymour  wrote 
a  letter  to  President  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  said  to  him 
practically:  '  We  are  all  in  favor  of  the  prosecution  of  the 
war.  We  all  devoutly  pray  that  the  Union  may  be  saved. 
We  pray  every  night  when  we  retire  to  our  couches  that 
the  Union  may  be  restored.  But  this  draft  law  opposes 
and  violates,  as  we  think,  some  of  the  fundamental  provis- 
ions of  the  constitution.  The  temper  of  the  loyal  people 
of  this  state/  he  said,  '  is  greatly  aroused,'  and  therefore  he 
proposed  to  Abraham  Lincoln  that  the  draft  be  suspended, 
and  that  a  lawsuit  be  commenced  in  some  court  in  the  city 
of  New  York  and  carried  through  to  the  supreme  court  of 
the  United  States,  which,  in  the  course  of  two  or  three 
years,  might  be  terminated,  and  by  which  it  might  be  ascer- 
tained whether  the  draft  was  all  right  or  not.  Mr.  Lin- 
coln wrote  back  to  him:  '  My  Dear  Sir:  I  cannot  see  how 
your  proposition  will  work.  The  difficulty  is  our  Con- 
federate friends  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  won't 
wait  for  your  lawsuit.  They  go  right  along  and  fill  up 
their  armies.'  And  he  says,  '  My  dear  Seymour,  go  on 
with  your  lawsuit  one  or  two,  or  as  many  of  them  as  you 
please.  I  will  go  along  with  my  draft,  and  we  will  run 
them  in  parallel  lines,'  and,  as  it  turned  out,  the  other 
Democratic  rebellion  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  was 
crushed  into  powder  long  before  Horatio  Seymour's  suits 
would  have  been  reached  upon  the  docket.  It  is  the  same 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  183 

party  precisely  that  acted  thus  when  such  dangers  as  those 
were  threatening  us  which  now  asks  that  the  affairs  of  this 
nation  shall  be  turned  over  to  its  keeping.  It  is  the  same 
party,  reeking  all  through  with  its  political  crimes,  that 
insists  upon  it  that  from  the  hands  of  this  great  loyal  or- 
ganization that  saved  the  nation,  it  shall  be  taken,  and 
passed  over  into  the  keeping  of  that  disloyal  mob  who 
sought  its  destruction.  I  do  not  believe  that  the  time  has 
yet  arrived  when  this  loyal  people  has  so  far  forgotten  the 
history  of  the  past  twenty  years  that  they  are  prepared  to 
accede  to  this  request. 

"  It  occurs  to  me  that  here  is  a  proper  place  to  be 
scriptural.  I  have  watched,  as  I  have  told  you,  this  Demo- 
cratic party  curiously  —  watched  its  promises.  It  is  a 
party  absolutely  without  performance,  and  depends  alto- 
gether upon  promise.  If  there  is  a  banker  in  this  town, 
or  a  citizen  who  is  not  a  banker,  that  has  loaned  some  fel- 
low $100  which  the  fellow  has  never  paid,  he  may  forgive 
the  debt  —  let  that  be  a  bygone;  bat  I  don't  believe  he  will 
make  another  loan.  How  may  I  know  that  this  Demo- 
cratic party  is  to  keep  its  promises?  By  judging  from  what 
it  has  done?  Oh,  no.  They  say,  '  We  will  save  the 
nation/  We  saved  it.  We  have  saved  you  that  trouble. 
They  say,  '  We  will  protect  it.'  Why,  you  sought  to  destroy 
it.  They  say,  'We  will  maintain  the  national  credit.'  Why, 
you  sought  to  ruin  it.  They  say,  '  We  will  make  green- 
backs equal  to  gold.'  We  say,  '  You  sought  to  destroy  them 
altogether.'  They  say,  *  We  will  lift  up  the  national  credit 
to  where  it  belongs,  and  pay  the  national  debt.'  We  say, 
'  It  was  eight  years  ago  that  you  sought  to  repudiate  it.' 

"These  are  the  promises  it  is  making  to-day.  These  are 
the  performances  of  the  past.  How  are  you  going  to  judge 
from  promises?  Suppose  there  comes  into  your  place  of 
business  a  young  man  magnificently  adorned  with  a  plat- 


184  POLITICAL   ORAT.ORY. 

form.  He  shines  and  glistens  all  over  with  it.  He  has 
brought,  perhaps,  the  Ten  Commandments,  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  the  Saints'  Rest,  and  Taylor's  Holy  Living, 
all  rolled  into  one,  and  he  says,  '  I  would  like  to  be  treas- 
urer of  your  insurance  company,'  and  you  produce  to  him 
a  record  from  the  police  court  simply  showing  that  he  has 
been  indicted  and  convicted  twice  of  larceny  —  what  on 
earth  becomes  of  his  platform?  And  when  this  Democratic 
party  comes  to  you  with  its  platform,  '  We,  the  delegates 
of  the  Democratic  party  in  National  convention  assembled, 
in  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  insist  upon  it  that  the  country  de- 
mands immediate  reform,'  you  say,  '  All  right;  but  in  case 
anybody  should  doubt  you,  I  propose  to  take  a  hand  in. 
Try  it  on  yourselves  first.'  I  saw  an  announcement  some 
days  ago  of  a  meeting  of  a  '  Tilden  Reform  Club,'  I  asked 
them  which  they  intended  to  reform,  Tilden  or  the  club. 
Now,  then,  as  to  the  Scripture.  A  noted  ex-Senator  is 
on  the  stump  again,and  he  is  always  scriptural.  A  good  man, 
but  his  heart  is  running  over  with  this  milky  kind  of  good- 
ness that  would  arrest  a  thief,  capture  the  spoons  from  him, 
and  then  give  him  your  hat  and  overcoat,  that  there  should 
be  no  misunderstanding  nor  unkind  feeling  in  the  future. 
He  says  that  we  should  treat  our  brethren  of  the  South 
with  the  same  Christian  spirit  that  the  father  in  the  para- 
ble treated  the  prodigal  son.  I  have  read  the  parable  of  the 
prodigal  son.  I  am  willing  to  accept  that  test ;  and  I,  for 
one,  will  be  willing  to  treat  the  Southern  prodigal  precisely 
as  the  old  man  in  the  story  treated  his  prodigal.  The 
prodigal  of  the  parable  was  a  pretty  good  sort  of  boy,  as 
the  world  went.  He  came  to  man's  estate.  He  left  home 
when  he  had  a  perfect  right  to  leave.  Nobody  questioned 
it.  No  soul  doubted  it.  His  portion  was  paid  over  to  him. 
He  didn't  take  a  single  dollar  that  did  not  belong  to  him. 
If  I  have  read  history  aright,  that  was  not  precisely  the 


POLITICAL   oKAfOIiY.  185 

course  which  the  Southern  prodigal  pursued.  The  old 
Scripture  prodigal  was  a  boy  standing  just  upon  the  thres- 
hold of  life,  foolish  as  hundreds  and  thousands  of  boys 
have  been  since,  with  his  pocket  full  of  rocks.  lie  went 
out  to  see  the  world,  fell  among  the  Democrats,  and  nat- 
urally enough  was  cleaned  out.  He  did  not  seek  the 
destruction  of  the  old  homestead  when  he  left  it.  He 
went  away  with  no  ill-will.  He  did  not  attempt  to  plunder 
either  the  old  man  or  the  brother  he  left  behind  him.  But 
he  found  that  playing  prodigal  didn't  pay.  When  his 
money  was  gone,  and  his  credit  was  gone,  and  his  Demo- 
cratic friends  had  no  further  use  for  him,  he  wf  nt  to  feed- 
ing swine,  and  then  went  to  feeding  with  swine.  He  got 
about  as  low  down  as  he  could,  and,  sore,  sick,  disheart- 
ened, covered  with  blisters  and  scars,  the  poor,  foolish  boy, 
loaded  down  with  his  unhappy  experience,  but  with  his 
heart  still  in  the  right  place,  got  up  from  among  the  hogs 
where  he  was  groveling  and  says,  'I  will  go  back  to  my 
father, '  and  back  he  went.  And,  as  he  was  tottering  on 
the  way,  the  old  man  was  looking  out  the  gate  watching 
down  the  long  and  dusty  highway  for  the  poor  boy  to 
return,  as  he  knew  he  would  ;  and  he  saw  him  coming  hob- 
bling along,  ragged,  and  wretched,  and  miserable  ;  but  he 
was  his  boy  still,  and  he  went  out  and  threw  his  arms 
around  him  and  bade  him  welcome  and  gave  him  a  suit  of 
clothes  and  a  ring  and  a  veal  dinner,  and  that  was  all. 
Now  that  is  all  that  boy  got.  I  want  you  to  observe  he 
didn't  come  back  headed  by  a  band-wagon  and  a  banner 
with  '  Tilden  and  Reform*  on  it.  What  did  he  ask  for  ? 
He  did  not  come  back  after  the  fashion  of  these  large- 
headed  gentlemen  from  the  South,  saying,  'I  will  run 
this  farm.'  No  sir.  He  came  back  saying,  '  Father  I 
haven't  a  cent ;  take  me  as  a  hired  servant' ;  and,  so  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  discover, —  if  there  are  any  preachers 


186  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

here  they  will  correct  me, —  he  did  kitchen  work  forever 
after.  And  yet  the  loyal  stay-at-home  boy  was  not  quite 
satisfied  with  that  arrangement.  He  looked  at  that  calf 
when  about  immolating  him  in  congratulation  for  the 
return  of  the  boy,  and  he  said  to  the  old  man :  e  Father, 
I  never  went  off  to  be  a  prodigal.  I  never  spent  my  money 
and  substance  in  riotous  living,  and  you  never  killed  any 
fatted  calf  for  me/  And,  the  loyal,  patriotic  father  turned 
around  to  him  and  said  :  '  Son,  thou  art  always  with  me. 
All  that  I  have  is  thine.  Not  a  dollar  in  money,  not  a 
foot  of  land,  not  an  office,  not  a  smell  of  an  office,  goes  to 
this  returning  prodigal.'  But  this  loyal,  patriotic  North- 
ern ex-Senator  says  that  we  should  let  the  Southern  prodi- 
gals take  this  government — this  farm  —  and  run  it  for 
all  time  in  the  future.  Now  suppose  we  do  offer  the  South- 
ern prodigals  this  nation.  Suppose  they  do  come  back 
kindly.  They  say  they  accept  the  situation.  It  is  remark- 
able ;  is  it  not  a  little  extraordinary,  after  the  surrender  at 
Appomattox,  that  they  accept  the  situation  ?  Isn't  it  a 
little  extraordinary  that  the  rebel  army  accepted  the  situ- 
ation at  Vicksburg  ?  Isn't  it  quite  strange  and  startling, 
and  doesn't  it  make  the  world  come  out  in  violent  gushing 
kindness,  to  think  that  Bragg's  army  accepted  the  situa- 
tion at  Chattanooga  ?  Isn't  it  curious  that  the  Confeder- 
ate army  accepted  the  situation  at  Five  Forks  ?  Isn't  it 
strange  that  Floyd  and  the  rest  or  them  accepted  the  situ- 
ation at  Donelson  ?  Ah,  of  course  they  did.  There  was 
nothing  else  under  God's  heavens  that  they  could  do.  They 
did  accept  the  situation,  and  that  is  all  there  is  about  it, — 
not  only  when  their  armies  were  beaten  in  the  field,  when 
the  last  ditch  was  reached,  when  their  banners  were  trailing 
in  the  mud  and  mire  of  everlasting  and  eternal  defeat,  with 
their  arms  stricken  from  their  hands,  with  their  cause 
hopelessly  lost.  This  was  done  after  the  nation  had  been 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  IS? 

filled  with  mourning,  and  the  Northern  people  burdened 
with  a  debt  of  three  thousand  millions  of  dollars  ;  after 
the  little  hero  to-day  at  the  head  of  the  government  had 
Rebellion  by  the  throat  and  choked  the  life  out  of  it.  Then 
the  courteous  rebels  accepted  the  situation. 

"  It  is  this  same  party  which  to-day  demands  the  cus- 
tody of  the  national  finances,  and  at  the  head  of  their 
ticket  they  have  a  great  financial  reformer,  and  stump- 
ing in  various  sections  of  the  country  are  Democratic 
orators,  eager  and  earnest,  introducing  their  arguments  to 
the  people  in  order  to  convince  them  that  a  sound  cur- 
rency, a  restored  credit,  must  be  the  necessary  result  of  a 
Democratic  administration.  Somewhere  in  the  State  of 
Indiana  is  a  distinguished  senator  denouncing  the  Republi- 
can party  in  that  it  fixed  a  day  for  the  resumption  of  specie 
payments.  He  says  if  that  policy  is  carried  out  there  will 
be  such  a  contraction  of  the  greenback  that  it  will  be 
quadrupled  in  its  value,  and  that,  therefore,  every  debt 
which  every  citizen  owes  will  be  practically  quadrupled  in 
amount.  Isn't  it  a  terrible  calamity  to  think  of  ?  Let  us 
stop  and  consider  it.  Has  it  ever  occurred  to  you  whether 
it  is  very  probable  that  any  time  within  our  prospects  of 
living  a  greenback  will  be  worth  very  much  more  than  gold  ? 
Suppose  some  enterprising  citizen  of  Jo  Daviess  County 
concludes  he  will  start  a  dairy.  He  gets  his  cows  and  his 
machinery  for  running  the  business.  lie  issues  his  milk 
tickets,  and  he  finds  by  and  by,  so  many  tickets  has  he 
issued,  that  he  has  a  great  many  more  tickets  than  milk. 
What  is  he  going  to  do  ?  Can  he  contract  his  tickets  so  as 
to  resume  ?  Suppose  he  began  contracting — that  he  calls 
in  his  tickets — the  time  will  never  come  when  the  milk 
ticket  will  be  worth  more  than  the  milk.  What  is  the 
policy  of  the  Republican  party  ?  If  you  cannot  contract 
your  tickets, — if  you  cannot  call  them  in — inflate  your 


13$  rOTLlTICAL   ORATORY. 

dairy;  get  more  cows;  get  no  more  tickets,  but  for  God's 
sake  get  more  cows.  What  is  the  policy  of  the  Democratic 
party?  It  is  to  inflate  your  tickets,  and  to -inflate  your 
milk  at  the  same  time.  Instead  of  having  a  tendency 
toward  honest  resumption  of  your  tickets,  instead  of 
enlarging  your  dairy,  they  have  immediate  recourse  to  the 
pump.  When  it  is  inflated  by  that  process,  have  they  got 
any  more  milk  ?  I  am  asked  by  Democratic  orators,  '  Do 
you  pretend  to  claim  that  Congress  cannot  make  money  ; 
that  the  inscription  which  it  puts  upon  a  piece  of  paper 
doesn't  confer  upon  it  actual  value?  Do  you/  they  say, 
'  deny" the  power  of  Congress  to  do  that  ? '  Yes.  I  have 
the  utmost  reverence  for  the  power  of  Congress,  but  there 
are  many  things  that  Congress  cannot  do.  Congress  can- 
not make  a  horse.  Congress  cannot  make  two  hundred 
acres  out  of  one.  Congress  cannot  make  actual  value  by 
saying  that  it  is  actual  value.  Take  a  $20  gold  piece,  fresh 
from  the  mint,  with  the  inscription  clear  and  bright  upon 
it.  Obliterate  every  letter  and  every  figure;  leave  it  an 
absolutely  smooth  surface;  twist  it  into  any  shape  you  please; 
make  around  ball  of  it,  and  it  is  then  worth  $20.  Take 
a  $20  greenback.  Obliterate  the  inscription  from  it;  make 
it  a  blank  piece  of  paper;  roll  it  up  in  a  wad,  and  it  isn't 
worth  a — Democratic  curse.  It  is  absolutely  good  for 
nothing.  There  is  no  inherent  value  in  it;  and  the  only 
worth  it  possesses  is  the  belief  of  the  holder  of  the  paper  in 
two  things:  first,  in  the  ability  of  the  nation  to  make  the 
promise  good;  and,  second,  in  the  willingness  of  the  nation 
to  make  the  promise  good.  You  cannot  enforce  a  liability 
against  a  nation  by  an  attachment  proceeding.  It  is  to  a 
certain  extent  idle  to  say  that  every  blade  of  grass  and  grain 
of  wheat  is  pledged  to  the  payment  of  the  greenback  and 
of  the  bonds.  So  long  as  the  Republican  party  is  in 
power  that  is  true;  but  with  the  Democratic  party  in 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  189 

power  it  is  false.  The  credit  of  either  the  greenback  or 
the  bond  depends  upon  the  integrity  of  the  party  in  power, 
and  the  just  management  of  the  national  affairs.  Place 
to-day — i.f  the  Almighty  in  His  wrath  should  see  fit  to  do 
it — this  Democratic  party  at  the  head  and  in  custody  of 
our  national  interests,  with  its  long  black  record  of  repu- 
diation behind  it,  and  where,  so  far  as  the  national  credit  is 
concerned,  would  the  national  credit  be?  Let  there  come 
up  from  the  South,  from  every  Confederate  crossroads,  a 
bearer  of  a  Confederate  heart  full  of  the  belief  that  the  Lost 
Cause  is  won;  let  the  Government  be  made  up  in  that  way, 
and  where  would  our  national  credit  be?  Do  you  gather 
grapes  from  thorns,  and  figs  from  thistles?  Is  this  Demo- 
cratic party,  characterized  to-day  by  being  a  solid  South, 
is  that  party,  which  for  years  and  years  has  waged  relent- 
less war  against  the  national  life,  to  be  trusted  with  its  old 
doctrine  still  fresh  upon  its  lips,  and  its  old  bitterness  still 
lingering  in  its  heart?  It  is  to  be  intrusted  with  the  care 
and  protection  of  the  national  credit?  Let  the  wires  carry 
the  intelligence  abroad  that  the  old  Rebel  Democratic 
party  has  triumphed,  that  it  has  charge  of  the  national 
debt,  that  it  has  charge  of  the  national  credit,  knowing 
that  that  party  has  always  sought  and  desired  the  ruin  of 
both,  where  would  our  national  credit  be?  Where  would 
be  the  pledge  of  your  blades  of  grass,  your  gold  and  your 
silver  in  your  mines,  your  coal  in  your  coal-field,  your  grain 
on  your  prairies — where  would  the  pledge  of  them  be  with 
the  Democratic  party  in  power? 

"There  is  nothing  in  this  world  more  sensitive  than 
national  credit  to  the  slightest  outside  interference.  Place 
in  charge  of  it  a  party  punctured  all  through  with  the 
name  of  repudiation,  and  this  national  credit  which  we 
all  hold  so  dearly  to  our  heart  would  perish  in  a  night.  I 
am  told  that  we  cannot  interfere  with  the  national  debt. 


190  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

I  may  overstate  it.  I  am  assured,  however,  that  in  the 
last  session  of  this  Confederate  Congress  more  than  1,000 
bills  for  private  claims  from  the  South  were  presented,  and 
smuggled  in  by  that  most  astute  Northern  Democratic 
gentleman  having  charge  of  those  affairs  in  committee. 
Imagine  the  condition  of  those  claims  if  they  should 
triumph!  Cords  and  cords,  scores  and  scores,  of  claims  of 
that  character  would  come  into  Congress,  and  millions, 
countless  millious,  of  additional  indebtedness  be  saddled 
upon  the  people,  which  would  render  the  time  of  resump- 
tion of  specie-payments  not  only  an  indefinite  postpone- 
ment, but  an  everlasting  impossibility. 

"  But  they  assure  us  they  desire  to  reform  the  civil 
service.  How?  Have  you  ever  heard  a  Democrat  say  how? 
Have  you  ever  read  a  Democratic  speech  that  told  you  how? 
Has  there  ever  stood  up  in  Washington,  in  the  Senate  or 
in  the  House,  a  single  Democratic  legislator,  and  made  one 
single  recommendation  of  a  practical  character  looking  to 
the  reform  of  the  civil  service?  Wade  through  their  long- 
winded  platform,  if  you  please.  Balance  each  dreary  plati- 
tude with  the  utmost  care;  search  it  all  with  the  keenest 
analysis  and  criticism,  and  then  tell  me  if  you  can.  Can 
you  see  a  practical  remedy  suggested  by  the  Democratic 
party  for  the  reform  of  the  civil  service?  My  good  friends, 
without  reference  to  platforms,  without  reference  to  letters 
of  acceptance,  let  us  take  this  business  as  it  is.  We  all 
know  that,  as  long  as  this  form  of  government  continues, 
the  nation  must  be  managed  by  parties.  I  believe  in  politi- 
cal organization.  I  believe  that  men  are  so  constituted 
that  upon  great  political  questions  they  do  not  think  alike; 
and  I  think  two  pretty  evenly-balanced  parties,  eager  and 
zealous,  are  the  most  healthy  indications  that  you  can  find 
in  any  free  government.  I  believe,  moreover,  and  you  be- 
lieve it,  that  the  party  in  power  will  fill  the  government 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  191 

offices  to  a  great  extent  with  men  holding  the  same  politi- 
cal belief  that  the  party  entertains.  This  is  a  necessity. 
You  will  never  reach  that  beatific  condition  of  government 
when  it  will  be  otherwise.  Suppose  that  the  only  issue 
were  hard  or  soft  money;  a  large  majority  of  the  people 
vote  that  they  will  have  hard-money,  and  they  elect  a  Presi- 
dent upon  that  basis,  what  would  you  say  to  him  if,  con- 
tinuing upon  that  basis,  representing  that  idea,  he  placed 
at  the  head  of  the  treasury,  as  its  secretary,  a  man  who 
believed  in  inflation?  I  have  this  to  say:  If  I  were  a  hard- 
money  secretary  of  the  treasury,  and  believed  in  it  as 
thoroughly  as  I  believe  in  it  to-day,  I  would  see  to  it  that 
my  first  assistant,  my  second  assistant,  my  third  assistant, 
my  chief  clerk,  and  my  subordinates,  if  I  could  command 
it,  should  be  hard-money  men  too.  I  should  see  to  it  that 
they  talked,  when  they  talked  anything,  hard-money;  that 
they  talked  hard-money  out  of  the  office;  that  they  would 
be  hard  money  all  the  way  through.  When  I  desired  to 
advance  hard-money  ideas  I  wouldn't  go  to  the  soft-money 
men  to  help  me.  Suppose  you  undertake  to  reform  the 
civil  service.  Let  me  say  to  you  here  that  out  of  one  or 
two  of  these  great  aggregations  which  we  call  the  Demo- 
cratic and  the  Republican  parties  must  these  offices  be 
filled  —  either  by  Republicans  or  by  Democrats.  From 
which  aggregation  will  you  fill  them?  If  you  desire  men 
who  can  write,  where  will  you  find  the  most  men  who  can 
read  and  who  can  write?  In  the  Republican  party  or  in  the 
ranks  of  the  Democracy?  If  you  want  to  find  the  great  mass 
of  the  intelligent,  honest,  patriotic  thought  of  the  country, 
where  will  you  go?  The  question  is  answered  by  your 
own  hearts  the  instant  it  is  asked.  You  know  that  within 
the  boundaries  of  this  Republican  party  of  the  nation, 
within  its  great  temple,  on  the  walls  of  which  are  inscribed 
the  grandest  records  either  of  ancient  or  modern  history, — 


192  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

that  in  that  temple  are  to-day  assembled,  and  have  been 
gathered  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  past,  the  wisest,  and 
purest,  and  best,  and  the  most  patriotic  men  on  the  con- 
tinent. 

"  I  ask  you  one  other  question.  From  either  one  of 
these  two  aggregations  must  your  choice  be  made.  Imagine 
such  a  thing  as  a  Democratic  success.  I  do  not  care  how 
well-intentioned  Mr.  Tilden  may  be;  I  do  not  care  how 
resolute  he  may  be;  that  man  doesn't  live  sufficiently 
strong  to  encounter  a  solid  party  against  him.  There 
would  come  floating  down  upon  him  like  the  resistless 
waves  of  old  ocean  a  tide  that  would  sweep  that  little 
bachelor  clean  up  into  the  clouds  if  he  didn't  obey;  that 
would  demand  for  these  Confederate  Democrats,  who  have 
for  sixteen  years  been  dieting  on  east  wind,  a  reward 
for  their  services.  Think  of  the  city  of  Washington. 
Think  of  the  congregations  that  would  be  there  assembled. 
Think  of  the  thousands,  and  tens  of  thousands  of  the  help- 
less, hopeless,  hatless,  shirtless,  and  lost  Confederates  there 
appealing  for  an  office  and  in  search  of  a  reform  of  civil 
service.  Is  that  your  remedy?  Straws  show  which  way 
the  wind  blows.  We  vainly  thought  that  the  old  Union 
cause  had  triumphed.  We  saw  the  old  flag  floating  above 
our  heads,  and  supposed  that  the  cause  which  it  repre- 
sented had  triumphed.  We  thought  we  had  triumphed, 
but  in  an  idle  hour,  in  an  evil  hour,  our  outposts  were  un- 
guarded and  the  rebel  host  rushed  in,  and  when  they  came 
in  they  threw  their  pickets  out.  The  old  skirmishers  of 
the  Union  army,  the  old  Boys  in  Blue,  who  had  watched  the 
doors  and  attended  to  the  messages  of  Congress,  have  sur- 
rendered —  surrendered  to  the  foe  who  but  eleven  years 
ago  surrendered  to  them.  In  went  again  the  old  conquered 
Confederate  soldier.  Out  went  the  victorious  soldier  of 
the  Union.  Soldier  after  soldier  who  had  fought  that  the 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  193 

Union  might  live  was  driven  from  his  place.  Soldier  after 
soldier,  with  the  old  plantation  threat  on  his  lips,  who  had 
fought  that  the  Union  might  be  destroyed,  was  put  back  in 
his  place  of  triumph.  Doesn't  it  seem  as  if  Samuel  J.  Til- 
den,  in  18C4,  spoke  the  words  of  prophesy  when  he  said 
the  war  was  a  failure? 

"  Point  me  to  a  city  under  Democratic  rule  where  the 
treasury  has  not  been  robbed.  Point  me  to  a  city  under 
Democratic  government  where  the  revenues  have  not  been 
plundered.  Point  me  to  a  little  patch  of  land,  I  do  not  care 
how  small  it  is,  that  has  been  under  Democratic  manage- 
ment for  years,  and  I  will  show  you  withered  fields  and 
blasted  political  crops.  Point  me  to  any  place  where  their 
policy  has  had  its  full  swing,  and  I  will  show  you  poor 
schools,  bootless  men,  shoeless  children  and  ruined  wives. 

"They  tell  us  that  we  have  forced  upon  the  nation  an 
ignorant  vote,  that  the  black  man  is  ignorant.  But  the 
black  man  knows  he  is  ignorant.  He  has  learned  that 
much.  We  erect  school-houses;  the  rebels  tear  them  down. 
We  send  teachers;  they  slaughter  them.  And  yet,  with 
the  blood  of  the  innocent  citizen  upon  their  hands,  and 
with  the  smoke  of  burning  asylums  and  school-houses  on 
their  garments,  they  turn  around  to  this  great  loyal 
North,  and  spit  upon  their  history  for  the  last  twenty 
years,  and  ask  that  they  may  be  permitted  to  take  charge 
of  our  national  affairs.  More  than  all  that.  Not  only  have 
they  embodied  assassination  in  their  creed,  but  they  have, 
by  a  reign  of  terror  which  is  a  disgrace  to  modern  civiliza- 
tion and  would  be  a  discredit  to  a  Turk,  driven  every  white 
man  from  their  midst.  Farmers  of  Stephensou  county, 
business  men  of  this  thriving  city,  send  your  son  with  his 
youthful  hopes  and  bounding  ambition  to  the  South.  Let 
him  take  that  free  tongue  with  him,  the  free  thought  and 
free  speech  which  he  has  enjoyed  here,  and  go  there.  He 


194  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

goes  there  in  pursuit  of  an  honest  living  in  an  honest  way. 
How  is  he  met?  Broad-hatted  Democratic  lawyers  demand 
of  him,  not  what  he  can  do,  but  what  does  he  think.  And, 
if  his  views  on  some  political  question  do  not  agree  with 
those  of  the  worthless  men  who  were  born  there,  he  is  de- 
nounced as  a  carpetbagger  and  shot  in  the  night.  I  spit 
upon  this  cry  of  carpetbagger.  I  believe  in  the  carpet- 
bag principle.  I  believe  that  there  is  no  state  in  the  Union, 
no  foot  of  soil  in  all  its  broad  domain,  upon  which  I  am 
not  to  be  permitted  to  tread,  a  free  man;  and  Avhere  I  am 
not  to  be  permitted  to  utter  what  I  think.  And  the  man 
who  would  deny  me  that  privilege  is  a  sneak,  and  if  it 
comes  into  the  politics  of  the  nation,  the  war  is  not  yet 
ended.  I  say,  throw  down  every  barrier,  remove  every 
obstruction,  open  every  avenue  of  enterprise.  Let  us  have 
it,  for  God's  sake,  if  we  have  to  fight  for  it;  let  us  have  the 
largest,  broadest  freedom  of  thought  and  opinion  of  which 
any  government  is  capable.  Who  are  you,  what  are  you, 
who  talk  about  carpetbaggers?  Were  you  born  here? 
Hundreds  of  thousands  of  you  are  from  old  fatherland, 
where  patriotic  feeling  is  an  instinct  with  the  people  — 
thousands  from  the  old  Empire  State.  From  all  the  hills 
and  valleys  of  New  England  and  New  York  you  have  come 
here,  young  men,  poor  men,  filled,  however,  with  that  un- 
conquerable spirit  which  is  characteristic  of  a  carpetbagger; 
and  you  have  reared  here  the  most  magnificent  empire  that 
the  world  has  ever  seen.  I  say,  go  on  with  the  carpetbag 
spirit.  Send  it  all  over  the  South.  Make  its  fields  blossom. 
Make  every  swift-running  stream  active  with  the  wheels  of 
swift-running  machinery;  develop  its  mines;  increase  its 
resources;  develop  everything  of  a  material  character; 
educate  its  people;  and  then  we  will  have  what  we  will 
never  have  otherwise, — a  united,  homogeneous  nation-, 
ality. 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  195 

"The  Democracy  have  nominated  Samuel  J.  Tilden  on 
a  platform  which  reads  well  enough,  but  who  is  he?  I  de- 
sire to  say  no  unkind  thing  of  Mr.  Tilden,  but  the  unkind- 
est  things  that  I  could  say  of  him  would  be  truthful  things. 
Suppose  that  I  should  say  that  he  was  born  with  a  Demo- 
cratic platform  in  one  hand  and  a  railroad  charter  in  the 
other;  that,  at  the  early  age  of  twelve  years,  he  was  incor- 
porated; that  he  has  had  no  soul  since;  that  he  was  con- 
solidated with  the  Democratic  party  and  run  in  connection 
with  Bill  Tweed  as  a  great  railroad  wrecker  and  great  rail- 
road physician,  under  whose  ministrations  there  have  been 
more  corporation  funerals  and  at  whose  door  have  been 
seen  larger  processions  of  corporation  hearses  than  all  the 
corporations  that  have  ever  flourished  in  all  the  times 
before.  I  ask  this  simple  question  of  him:  Mr.  Tilden, 
where  were  you  during  the  war?  What  were  you  doing 
during  the  war?  It  is  an  important  question  for  us  to  ask.  I 
ask  the  loyal  men  to-day,  whose  hearts  and  all  whose  sym- 
pathies and  feelings  were  with  and  are  with  the  great 
cause,  where  was  he?  Now  and  then  we  have  a  stray  affida- 
vit from  some  inconspicuous  individual  that  Samuel  J. 
Tilden  quietly,  modestly,  unobtrusively,  was,  away  down 
at  the  bottom  of  his  little  corporation  heart,  a  genuine, 
all-wool,  yard-wide,  patriotic  man.  I  have  never  found  it 
out.  I  do  not  believe  in  patriotism  that  is  so  stealthy;  I 
do  not  believe  in  loyalty  that  is  so  shy;  I  do  not  believe  in 
an  emergency  as  great  as  that  was  that  made  so  good  a 
man  hide  the  whole  of  patriotism  under  so  small  a  bushel." 

Returning  to  Chicago,  Mr.  Storrs  again  addressed 
an  enthusiastic  mass-meeting  in  that  city.  Being  one 
of  many  speakers  on  this  occasion,  his  remarks  were 
brief.  He  said :  • 

"  The  Republican  party  had  a  great  mission  during  the 
war,  It  fyas  had  a  great  mission  since  the  war.  Its  mis.- 


196  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

sion  since  the  war  has  been  to  convert  the  Democratic 
party.  And  how  splendidly  it  has  succeeded  is  evidenced 
in  the  fact  that  in  their  last  platform  of  principles  they 
unhesitatingly  declare  that  they  are  opposed  to  stealing. 
Within  twenty-five  years  we  expect  to  get  them  to  ratify 
the  whole  Decalogue.  Think  of  it  !  The  Democratic 
party  opposed  to  larceny  !  And  in  favor  of  reform  !  A 
party  not  satisfied  with  stealing  trivial  things,  but  that 
runs  off  with  a  whole  state.  A  party  that  undertook  to 
force  the  nation  to  steal  the  government  opposed  to  lar- 
ceny !  God  save  the  mark  !  I  desire  to  enlarge  the  prop- 
osition of  the  next  governor  of  this  state.  He  insists  that 
the  only  question  before  us  is,  f  Who  are  the  best  men  for 
president  and  vice-president  of  the  United  States  ?  It  is  a 
broader  question,  a  more  serious  question.  The  question 
is,  Which  of  the  two  parties  is  the  safest  to  be  intrusted  with 
the  management  of  our  national  affairs  ?  If  you  took  the 
Blessed  Saviour  and  put  him  at  the  head  of  the  Democratic 
party,  elected  him  its  president,  with  its  feeling,  its  his- 
tory, its  traditions,  its  spirit,  he  would  be  absolutely  help- 
less for  the  accomplishment  of  reform.  I  am  opposed  to 
the  Democratic  party  because  it  has  a  consistent,  unvary- 
ing record,  injurious  to  the  best  interests  of  the  people, 
and  destructive,  if  carried  out,  of  our  national  existence. 
I  am  opposed  to  the  Democratic  party  because  it  sought 
the  destruction  of  our  cause,  and  I  don't  believe  it  wise  to 
intrust  the  affairs  of  a  great  empire  to  the  members  of  a 
political  organization  within  ten  years  after  they  sought  to 
annihilate  it.  The  logic  is  short,  it  is  clear,  it  is  plain,  it 
is  unmisunderstandable.  I  am  prepared  to  accept  with 
certain  qualifications  their  protestations  of  repentance,  but 
the  repentance  has  not  been  long  enough. 

"I  want  them  to  be  engaged  in  good  works  as  long  as 
they  have  been  engaged  in  bad  works,  and  if.  we  wait  for 


POLITICAL 

the  expiration  of  that  period  of  probation,  we  will  be  dead, 
and  our  children  afterwards,  before  the  Democratic  party 
succeeds  to  power.  The  Democratic  party  is  in  favor  of 
purifying  the  civil  service  of  the  government.  How  do 
they  propose  to  do  it  ?  Have  they  told  you?  They  are  in 
favor  of  an  honest  currency.  What  currency  do  they  pro- 
pose to  give  you  ?  Have  they  told  you  ?  They  say  they 
are  in  favor  of  the  resumption  of  specie  payments.  How 
are  they  to  resume  ?  Have  they  told  you  ?  Their  plat- 
form is  full  of  denunciations  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end,  and  the  curious  feature  of  the  platform  of  1876  is 
that  it  denounces  every  Democratic  measure  since  18GO. 
They  insist  upon  it  that  the  Republican  party  which  they 
arraign  has  impeded  that  desired  result.  What  financial 
policy  has  the  Democratic  party  had  since  18GO  ?  None 
whatever,  except  in  18G8  they  did  invent  a  platform  and 
put  forth  a  principle  insisting  upon  it  that  the  national 
debt  should  be  paid  in  greenbacks,  a  policy  that  would 
have  resulted  in  the  repudiation  of  the  national  debt  and 
the  destruction  and  swamping  of  every  national  interest. 
"  No  single  living  Democrat  occupying  a  prominent 
pol-itical  position  since  1800  has  proposed  a  scheme  for  the 
reform  of  the  Civil  Service.  They  have  had  the  power 
this  winter  jn  one  branch  of  the  National  Government. 
How  have  they  reformed  the  service  ?  No  measure  has 
been  introduced  for  that  purpose.  They  have  had  control 
over  the  appointments,  and  such  a  raft  of  Confederates, 
believing  that  the  Lost  Cause  was  finally  won,  was  never 
before  seen  as  gathered  in  that  City  of  Washington  to  catch 
the  crumbs  that  might  fall  from  the  Speaker's  table.  Tray, 
Blanche,  and  Sweetheart,  sutlers,  commissaries,  privates, 
and  officers  in  the  Confederate  service  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end,  knowing  that  their  victory  had  finally  been 
achieved,  rushed  to  Washington  by  countless  hundreds  and 


198  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

made  night  hideous  by  their  howls  for  place,  demanding 
the  reward  of  their  services. 

"  They  ask  us,  '  Will  you  shake  the  bloody  shirt  ? '  Who 
is  responsible  for  the  blood  on  the  shirt  ?  Whose  blood  is 
it  ?  I  would  not  as  a  Republican,  and,  as  I  think,  as  a 
patriotic  citizen,  needlessly  engender  the  bitterness  which 
the  war  brought  about,  but  if  I  am  to  choose,  and  my 
thousands  of  fellow-citizens  who  surround  me  to-night,  if 
you  are  to  choose  —  if  the  choice  is  to  be  laid  between  the 
boy  who  shed  his  blood  that  your  nationality  might  be  pre- 
served, and  the  man  who  shed  his  that  it  might  be  destroyed, 
no  gushing  talk  about  shaking  hands  over  the  gaping 
chasm  will  make  you  hesitate  long  about  the  decision. 
You  can  call  it  the  bloody  shirt  or  not,  as  you  please. 
First,  last,  and  all  the  while,  as  long  as  I  have  the  capacity 
to  distinguish  the  difference  of  men  when  public  benefac- 
tions are  to  be  bestowed,  I  am,  thank  God,  in  favor  of  giv- 
ing them  to  him  who  fought  that  the  nation  might  live, 
rather  than  to  him  who  fought  that  the  nation  might  be 
destroyed." 


VII. 
THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1880. 

AN  ORATORICAL  VICTORY  ON  THE  PACIFIC  SLOPE  —  CHAR- 
ACTER OF  GENERAL  GRANT  —  WORK  OF  AN  ORATOR  — 
RECORD  OF  A  GREAT  PARTY  —  ADDRESSES  AT  BDRLING- 
TON,  CLEVELAND  AND  OTHER  CITIES  —  ELOQUENCE  AND 
LOGIC. 

( (  T  E AVING  that  wonderful  city  of  mine,  enthroned 
!_-/  on  the  edges  of  the  great  inland  sea,  coming 
away  across  2,000  miles  of  plain  and  mountain  to  this  gem 
on  the  Pacific  coast,  this  jewel  which  rests  upon  the  edge 
of  that  wonderful  ocean,  I  find  they  are  both  patriotic 
cities,  both  born  of  patriotism.  Will  you  allow  me  to  carry 
back  to  my  fellow-citizens'  when  I  return  home  the  message 
from  San  Francisco  to  Chicago  that  this  wonderful  city  is 
true  to  her  birth  which  made  her  a  free  state,  and  is  true 
to  that  great  party  which  made  us  a  nation.  I  come  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  and  one  flag  covers  us  ;  wherever 
I  am  I  am  a  citizen  of  the  United  States ;  and  when  I 
think  of  all  these  splendid  achievements  and  of  our  party, 
we  did  it,  we  did  it,  and  the  poorest  of  us,  however  little 
we  may  have  of  other  worldly  possessions,  these  splendid 
achievements  are  our  patrimony,  and  with  these  we  are  rich 
indeed.  This  great  party,  the  pride  of  humanity  every- 
where, confronts  to-day  the  Democratic  party,  a  party  that 
asks  that  the  past  be  buried,  and  I  do  not  wonder  at  it ;  a 
party  that  insists  that  no  previous  record  shall  be  exam- 
ined—  I  am  not  surprised  at  it ;  a  party  that  wishes  to 
look  to  the  future  only  —  I  am  not  astonished  at  it,  for  if 
the  record  of  the  party  to  which  I  belong  and  you  belong 

199 


200  POLITICAL  OtlATOftY. 

were  leprous  with  guilt  as  theirs  is,  and  were  stained  all 
over  with  crime  as  theirs  is;  if  the  political  history  of  our 
party  were  as  theirs  is,  not  merely  criminal  but  crime 
itself,  I  would  ask,  as  they  ask,  that  the  past  be  forgotten. 
Are  these  dead  issues  ?  They  claim  so  ;  I  think  not.  The 
great  effort  of  the  Democratic  party  of  to-day  is  to  unload 
its  history,  to  run  away  from  its  reputation  and  its  charac- 
ter. It  is  a  hard  thing  to  do.  They  discover  that  charac- 
ter is  always  in  issue.  No  man  asks  for  employment 
without  he  puts  his  character  in  issue.  You  don't  employ 
men  on  their  platforms  or  on  their  promises.  The  banker 
would  not  employ  the  pilfering  clerk  of  last  month,  even  if 
his  platform  of  next  month  embodied  the  Ten  Command- 
ments and  Christ's  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

"  You  perhaps  by  this  time  have  discovered  that  I  am 
not  in  favor  of  a  change,  except  in  the  better  and  qualified 
sense.  I  am  in  favor  of  all  changes  that  look  to  improve- 
ment. I  would  be  in  favor  of  a  change  from  hell  to  purg- 
atory, but  not  from  earth  to  purgatory.  " 

These  words  were  the  beginning  of  a  speeeh,  deliv- 
ered by  Mr.  Storrs  in  the  Grand  Opera  House,  San 
Francisco,  on  the  15th  of  September,  1880,  which  called 
from  the  Chronicle  the  following  day  the  statement 
that — 

"  It  is  risking  nothing  to  say  that  the  great  audience 
which  crammed  the  Grand  Opera  House  last  night  from 
pit  to  gallery,  to  hear  the  famous  orator  from  Illinois, 
Hon.  Emery  A.  Storrs,  has  not  been  surpassed  in  San 
Francisco  in  point  of  numbers,  intelligence  and  enthusiasm. 
Long  before  half-past  7  o'clock,  half  an  hour  before 
the  time  announced  for  the  opening  of  the  meeting,  hun- 
dreds reluctantly  turned  from  the  doors,  unable  to  squeeze 
their  way  into  the  immense -edifice.  There  were  ladies 
willing  to  brave  the  discomforts  of  standing  if  they  could 


POLITICAL  ORA±CR¥.  SOJ 

but  get  within  the  theater,  men  so  anxious  to  hear  Mr. 
Storrs  that  they  stood  in  the  aisles  and  passage  ways  packed 
liked  sardines  in  boxes,  able  to  hear  the  fine  voice  of  the 
speaker  but  unable  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  him,  The  enthu- 
siasm, as  might  be  expected,  was  unparalleled.  Every 
telling  point  made  by  the  speaker  —  and  his  speech  fairly 
bristled  with  them — was  applauded  to  the  echo/' 

But  this  political  harangue  —  one  of  a  short  series 
on  the  Pacific  slope  —  was  not  the  first  of  the  labors  of 
Mr.  Storrs  during  the  great  campaign  of  1880.  He 
had  inaugurated  the  fight  in  a  splendid  address  at  a 
mass  meeting,  at  Chicago,  of  those  favoring  the  nomi- 
nation of  Gen.  Grant  for  a  third  term,  held  immediately 
prior  to  the  nominating  convention.  The  address,  set- 
ting forth  the  attitude  of  a  great  commander,  the  colossal 
egotism  of  "the  independent  scratcher,"  and  the 
"third  term"  issue,  was  a  field  for  common  quotation 
by  the  after-campaign  speeches  of  that  fall.  Mr.  Storrs 
said: 

' '  I  can  say  without  the  slightest  degree  of  extrava- 
gance that  it  has  never  been  the  fortune  of  any  man  to 
face,  on  a  political  occasion,  an  audience  more  splendid  in 
enthusiasm,  grander  in  its  tone  and  quality,  than  the  vast 
assemblage  gathered  here  to-night.  It  is  an  audience 
called  together  on  no  common  occasion  and  assembled  for 
no  ordinary  purpose.  It  is  an  audience  of  the  leading  men 
and  women  of  the  chiefest  city  of  the  great  Northwest.  It 
is  an  audience  gathered  together  here  in  an  emergency  to 
protect  the  fair  escutcheon  of  the  great  state  of  Illinois 
from  an  impending  stab  of  dishonor,  and,  God  knows,  it 
will  protect  it.  It  is  an  audience  gathered  to  celebrate  the 
praises  of  no  common  man,  an  audience  met  from  all  over 
this  State,  merely  to  testify  what  all  the  world  has  testified, 


202  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

that  we  have  in  our  midst  the  chief  est  citizen  of  the  world. 
And  the  broad-browed  men  of  Chicago  that  have,  within 
the  period  of  nine  years,  lifted  it  from  ashes  and  made  it 
the  proudest  city  of  the  world,  seated  like  a  queen  enthroned 
by  the  shore  of  her  great  lake,  have  no  apologies  to  offer 
because  they  are  here  to  night  demanding  the  nomination 
of  U.  S.  Grant.  The  city  of  Chicago,  Mr.  Chairman,  never 
begged  a  favor ;  it  never  won  a  fight  that  it  didn't  win  in 
front,  and  it  never  yet  trembled  in  the  presence  of  an 
adversary.  The  city  of  Chicago  is  a  great  Eepublican  city; 
it  is  the  imperial  city  of  the  carpetbagger  who  has  carved 
out  in  this  Western  world,  within  the  period  of  twenty-five 
years,  an  empire  the  most  splendid  that  the  sun  in  all  his 
course  shines  upon,  an  empire  of  the  light  of  which  the 
'independent  scratched  never  dreamed. 

"  Who  is  this  man  that  has  called  this  vast  audience 
together,  utterly  untitled,  who  holds  no  office,  who  wields 
no  patronage,  who  manages  no  bureau  ?  He  is  a  great 
majestic  prince,  enthroned  in  the  hearts  of  48,000,000  of 
people.  He  reigns  there  by  their  suffrages  ;  and  this  side 
the  Plutonian  region  of  Democracy,  this  side  the  purga- 
torial region  of  the  half-way  house  of  independentism, 
there  is  no  man  to  molest  or  make  him  afraid.  I  speak 
to-night  not  alone  of  this  hero.  I  cannot  speak  for  this 
great  citizen  without  speaking  of  the  Eepublican  party. 
From  boyhood  up  to  manhood  I  have  been  and  am  a  member 
of  that  party,  stalwart  at  the  outset  and  stalwart  now,  per- 
pendicular as  a  ramrod,  believing  in  its  faith  in  the  inner- 
most recesses  of  my  soul,  never  doubting  that  from  its  birtli 
down  to  this  hour  its  supremacy  has  been  absolutely  essen- 
tial to  the  well-being  of  this  country.  I  talk,  then,  of  that 
grand  old  party ;  I  talk  of  its  grand  leader,  as  grand  as  the 
party  and  as  great.  I  can  say,  that  when  I  look  back  on 
our  history  I  can  discern  a  great  party  which  has  for  a 


POLITICAL  OfcATOBY.  203 

quarter  of  a  century  preserved  its  identity  ;  a  party  often 
depressed,  never  extinguished ;  a  party  which,  though 
often  tainted  with  the  faults  of  the  age,  has  always  been 
in  advance  of  the  age  ;  a  party  which,  though  guilty  of 
some  errors,  has  the  glory  of  having  established  our  liber- 
ties on  a  firm  foundation  ;  and  of  that  party  I  am  proud  to 
be  a  member.  It  was  that  party  which,  at  the  very  thres- 
hold of  its  career,  confronted  the  shameful  doctrine  that 
freedom  was  sectional  and  slavery  was  national,  rescued  the 
Territories  from  the  grasp  of  slavery,  and  dedicated  them 
forever  after  to  freedom  —  to  free  men,  free  thought,  and 
free  speech.  It  is  that  party  which,  in  vindication  of  its 
ideas  of  freedom,  elected  Lincoln  president  of  the  United 
States ;  which  found  treason  in  every  department  of  the 
Government ;  which  found  its  fleet  scattered  over  every 
sea  ;  its  arsenals  plundered,  its  forts  in  the  hands  of  trai- 
tors, its  little  army  shivered  to  fragments ;  which  found 
every  branch  of  the  public  service  paralyzed,  the  national 
flag  dishonored  even  when  flying  over  its  own  forts  ;  which 
found  hostile  armies  arrayed  against  it  ;  which,  compelled 
to  appeal  to  the  patriotism  of  the  people  for  national  sal- 
vation, made  the  appeal ;  which  met  an  armed  rebellion 
vast  in  extent  and  malignant  in  spirit ;  which  saved  this 
nation  to  be  the  custodian  of  free  government  among  men. 
It  is  that  party  which,  true  to  the  great  cause  which  it 
represented,  made  the  promise  of  freedom  to  the  slave  and 
kept  that  promise  good.  It  is  that  party  which,  when  the 
war  for  national  preservation  closed  in  victory,  declared 
that  forever  after  slavery  should  be  extirpated  from  the 
soil  of  the  republic  ;  which  declared  that  all  persons  born 
beneath  the  flag,  or  naturalized  here,  should  be  citizens ; 
which  guaranteed  to  all  citizens  equality  of  civil  and  polit- 
ical privileges  ;  which  placed  beyond  the  possibility  of 
repudiation  our  national  debt,  and  made  firm  and  secure 


204  POLITICAL   ORATOilY. 

the  national  credit.  It  is  that  party  which  has  restored 
our  currency,  and  made  every  paper  dollar  in  the  pockets 
of  the  laboring  man  worth  one  hundred  cents;  It  is  that 
party  which  compelled  the  British  Government  to  pay  to 
our  own  people  millions  of  money,  for  damages  inflicted 
upon  our  commerce  by  rebel  cruisers  fitted  out  in  their 
ports.  It  is  that  party  which  by  wise  legislation  has  sought 
the  execution  of  all  our  constitutional  guarantees  to  the 
citizen,  the  purity  of  the  ballot-box,  and  the  protection  of 
the  polls  against  violence,  terrorism,  and  fraud.  It  is  that 
party  which  has  ranked  among  its  leaders  the  purest 
patriotism,  the  staunchest  courage,  the  wisest  thought,  the 
best  culture,  and  the  loftiest  statesmanship  of  the  nation, 
and  among  its  rank  and  file  'that  solid  citizenship  which 
demands  just  and  honest  government,  and  will  be  satisfied 
with  nothing  less.  I  look  with  pride  on  all  that  the 
Republican  party  has  done  for  the  cause  of  human  free- 
dom. I  see  it  now  hard  pressed,  struggling  with  difficulties, 
but  still  fighting  the  good  fight.  At  its  head  I  see  men  who 
have  inherited  the  spirit  and  the  virtues,  as  well  as  the  blood, 
of  the  old  champions  and  martyrs  of  freedom.  I  see  pre- 
siding here  to-night  the  only  living  son  and  descendant  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  whose  name  and  whose  memory  are 
enshrined  in  every  patriotic  heart.  I  see  here  to-night  the 
son  of  that  great  patriotic  statesman,  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 
who,  when  treason  raised  its  hands,  cast  party  to  the  winds, 
stood  like  a  rock  for  thellnion,  and  died  with  patriotic  words 
upon  his  lips.  I  look  at  the  call  in  obedience  to  which  this 
magnificent  audience  is  assembled,  and  see  at  its  head  a 
name  which  we  all  delight  to  honor ;  one  steadfast  and 
ever  reliable  as  a  legislator,  wise  in  counsel,  prompt  in 
action,  earnest  in  opinion,  dauntless  in  courage,  incorrupt- 
ible in  integrity  ;  who  for  nearly  twenty  years  maintained 
the  honor  of  our  state  in  the  councils  of  the  nation,  always 


POLITICAL   OKATOfiY.  205 

speaking  for  freedom  ;  who  for  eight  years  dignified  and 
honored  the  American  name  and  character  abroad,  and 
who,  as  Minister  to  France,  during  the  terrible  siege  of 
Paris,  when  every  other  foreign  representative  had  fled, 
remained  faithful  at  his  post,  gathering  in  safety  under  his 
country's  flag  the  citizens  of  every  land  who  sought  the 
protection  of  its  sheltering  folds — Elihu  B.  Washburne. 
To  the  same  call  I  see  the  name  of  the  peerless  soldier,  the 
ever-faithful  Republican,  the  true  man,  the  firm  friend, 
the  stalwart  senator,  the  smiter  of  treason  —  John  A. 
Logan.  The  last  words  of  the  great  Michigan  senator, 
Chandler,  patriotic  and  eloquent  words,  uttered  the  lan- 
guage of  this  call,  and  declared,  with  Lincoln  and  Douglas 
and  Logan  and  "Washburne,  that  he,  too,  believed  that  the 
success  of  the'  Republican  party  would  be  best  promoted  by 
the  nomination  and  election  of  Ulysses  S.  Grant  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States.  The  millions  of  oppressed, 
bullied  and  terrorized  Republicans  of  the  South,  white  and 
black,  speak  the  same  sentiment .  To  this  party  —  to  these 
men  —  I  propose  to  attach  myself  ;  and,  while  one  shred 
of  the  old  banner  is  left  flying,  by  that  banner  will  I  at 
least  be  found. 

"I  confess  that  I  am  not  independent  of  these  consid- 
erations. I  have  not  scaled,  and  shall  not  attempt  to  scale, 
those  dizzy  heights  from  which  I  could  look  down  upon 
them.  I  am  content  to  remain  in  the  valleys,  where  I  find 
such  company  as  I  have  named,  rather  than  to  seek  those 
drearier  and  colder,  if  loftier,  mountain  peaks  to  which 
that  select  few  aspire  who  profess  to  see  in  the  nomination 
and  election  of  General  Grant  as  President  of  the  United 
States  dangers  which  the  wisdom  of  the  country  is  not  able 
to  perceive.  Who  am  I,  to  threaten  .that  wisdom,  patriot- 
ism, experience,  and  intelligence,  that  unless  it  surrenders 
its  opinion  for  mine  I  will  refuse  obedience  to  orders,  and 


206  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

bolt  the  ticket  ?  This  colossal  egotism  is  called  '  indepen- 
dence/ This  man  who  parades  it  is  known  as  the  'inde- 
pendent scratcher/  independent  of  the  party  to  which  he 
belongs,  save  when  the  minority  to  which  he  is  attached 
can  rule  ;  whose  ticket  he  votes,  whose  principles  he  con- 
descendingly espouses,  and  whose  candidates  he  patroniz- 
ingly supports  at  spasmodic  intervals,  the  recurrence  of 
which  it  is  given  to  no  one  to  foretell.  I  do  not  include 
among  the  'independent  scratchers'  those  true  Republi- 
cans who  honestly  prefer  the  nomination  by  the  forth- 
coming National  Republican  Convention  of  some  other 
candidate  than  General  Grant.  Those  true  and  earnest 
Republicans  who  prefer  either  Mr.  Washburne,  or  Mr. 
Sherman,  or  Mr.  Elaine,  or  Mr.  Edmunds  will  surely 
find  the  claims  of  their  favorites  fairly  considered  by 
that  convention,  and  will  as  surely  support  its  nominee 
as  I  am  sure  to  support  him,  not  haltingly,  and  unwill- 
ingly, but  with  whole  soul  and  in  dead  earnest.  The 
friends  of  General  Grant  do  not  bolt,  and  they  neither 
boast  nor  .threaten ;  but  they  do  better  —  they  succeed. 
The  '  independent  scratcher '  is  either  that  ambitious 
young  man  very  proud  of  knowing  what  older  and  wiser 
men  have  found  it  convenient  to  forget,  or  that  ambitious 
man  of  any  age  who,  itching  for  notoriety,  must  find  some 
one  more  distinguished  and- greater  than  himself  to  scratch. 

"In  1864  the  'independent  scratcher'  in  the  state  of 
Illinois  engaged  in  a  scheme  to  force  the  withdrawal  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  and  attempted  to  carry  through  our 
state  convention  at  Springfield  a  resolution  condemning 
Lincoln  and  his  administration.  The  outraged  patriotism 
and  good  sense  of  the  people,  the  dangers  of  insurrection 
in  our  very  midst,  frightened  the  '  independent  scratcher' 
back  into  the  ranks  which  he  attempted  to  desert. 

"In  1872  the  'independent  scratchers/  wretchedly  in 


POLITICAL  OKATOKY.  207 

* 

the  minority,  organized  a  free-trade  and  revenue  reform 
party  at  Cincinnati,  but  at  its  head  the  most  rabid  and 
ultra  protectionist  and  the  bitterest  hater  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  on  earth,  and  in  a  body  melted  into  the 
Democratic  fold.  The  combination  was  terribly  beaten. 
Many  of  them  returned  to  us  in  1876,  and  we  were  well 
riigh  defeated  ;  and  but  for  the  fact  that  there  was  then  at 
the  head  of  the  government  a  man  with  whom  no  one 
could  either  trifle  or  trade,  surrounded  by  a  cabinet  in- 
spired by  his  own  courage  and  patriotism,  the  nation  would 
have  been  involved  in  another  rebellion.  From  this  colili- 
tion  thousands  of  honest,  earnest  but  deceived  Eepublicans 
have  withdrawn  themselves.  They  have  by  years  of  faith- 
ful service  expiated  their  offense.  They  are  with  us  now. 
They  are  here  to-night,  and  after  having  once  tasted  the 
bitter  fruits  of  bolting  experience,  they  are  comfortably 
back  in  the  old  mansion,  feeling  '  themselves  again/  and 
determined  to  never  wander  more. 

"General  Grant  is  to-day,  and  has  been  for  the  past 
three  years,  a  private  citizen,  out  of  office,  with  no  patron- 
age at  his  disposal,  resting  his  claims  purely  upon  his 
strength  with  the  people  as  a  man.  It  is  idle  to  talk  of 
the  precedents  of  our  history,  for  our  history  furnishes  no 
precedent.  There  is  no  instance  in  our  history  where  a 
president,  after  holding  the  office  for  two  successive  terms, 
retires  to  the  ranks  of  private  citizenship,  and  is  afterward 
called  upon  to  again  fill  the  position.  Washington  retired 
after  serving  two  terms.  Jefferson  did  also,  and  declined 
a  successive  nomination  for  a  third  term  after  it  became 
clear  that  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  secure  it.  Madison 
held  the  office  two  terms,  and  no  renomination  was  ten- 
dered him.  Jackson  held  the  office  two  terms,  and  no 
renomination  was  tendered  him.  Grant  held  the  office  two 
terms,  retiree}  at  the  close  of  his  second  term.  After  an 


208  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

interval  of  four  years,  a  nomination  is  again  tendered  him, 
for  which  our  history  furnishes  no  precedent  whatever. 
Why  should  the  people  of  this  country,  after  having  had 
four  years'  opportunity  to  calmly  and  justly  judge  the  man, 
be  deprived  by  a  sentimental  objection  of  this  character  of 
his  services  through  another  trying  period  in  our  history? 
Who  has  made  such  a  law  ?  With  a  wider  experience  and 
a  riper  judgment  than  he  ever  before  possessed,  with  an 
emergency  upon  us  through  which  we  know  he  could 
safely  carry  us,  who  is  there  to  say  the  majority  of  this 
people  shall  not  again  elevate  the  private  citizen  of  their 
choice  into  the  highest  place  ?  The  people  of  this  country 
have  never  found  any  difficulty  in  ridding  themselves  of  a 
president  whom  they  did  not  like  at  the  end  of  his  first 
term.  They  found  no  difficulty  in  retiring  both  the 
Adamses,  VanBuren,  Polk,  Pierce,  Buchanan  and  John- 
son, after  they  had  served  one  term.  The  people  have 
never  yet  made  a  mistake  in  electing  an  incumbent  to  the 
second  term.  They  have  made  several  mistakes  in  electing 
a  man  to  the  first  term.  Quick  to  discover  such  a  mistake, 
however,  they  never  repeat  it.  The  people  of  this  country 
are  better  judges  of  the  fitness  of  their  public  servants 
than  any  little  band  of  philosophers  who  have  vexed  us 
with  their  theories.  Conceding  that  there  is  no  constitu- 
tional objection  to  the  election  of  General  Grant,  it  is  still 
urged  that  it  is  unduly  honoring  one  man  at  the  expense  of 
all  the  others.  I  am  in  favor  of  General  Grant's  nomina- 
tion, not  to  honor  him,  but  to  benefit  the  country.  This 
great  office  is  to  be  filled,  not  for  the  accommodation  of 
the  individual,  but  to  promote  the  public  interests.  It  is 
not,  as  some  people  seem  to  conceive,  an  office  to  be  passed 
around  among  certain  invited  guests  like  refreshments  at 
a  picnic,  but  a  great  office,  to  be  filled  for  the  public  good. 
(<  While  the  friends  of  General  Grant  sincerely  believe. 


POLITICAL  OUATOKY.  209 

that  there  is  before  us  such  an  emergency  as  can  best  be 
filled  by  him  —  while  they  sincerely  believe  that  his  elec- 
tion will  do  more  to  insure  quiet  and  a  finally  just  solution 
of  our  political  troubles  than  that  of  any  other  Republi- 
can—  while  they  believe  that  he  possesses  the  confidence  of 
the  people  North  and  South  in  a  larger  measure  than  any 
other  man  in  the  nation  —  they  do  not  believe,  and  they 
are  very  far  from  saying,  that  he  is  the  only  man  whom 
the  Republican  party  can  elect.  But  it  nevertheless  is  true 
that  the  most  serious  problem  in  our  politics  to-day  and 
for  the  future  grows  out  of  the  constant  menace  of  a  solid 
South.  Who  can  divide  that  solid  South,  and  thus  solve 
the  problem  ?  I  do  say  that  General  Grant  is  the  only 
man  in  all  this  country  who  can  solve  the  problem  of  the 
solid  South  by  dividing  the  South,  so  that  it  shall  not  be 
solid.  I  do  say  that  he  is  the  only  man  in  all  this  country 
whom  the  Republican  party  can  nominate  for  whom  the 
negro  will  risk  his  life  and  property  to  vote.  I  do  say  that 
he  can  carry  three  and  probably  five  Southern  states,  and 
can  divide  the  vote  in  all  the  others,  and  that  no  other 
Republican  can  carry  one.  If  Grant  is  nominated,  the 
negro  will  vote,  and  will  vote  for  him.  If  he  is  not  nom- 
inated, the  negro  will  not  vote  at  all.  If  Grant  is 
nominated,  the  terrorized  and  outraged  Southern  white 
Republican  will  vote,  and  vote  for  him.  If  he  is  not  nom- 
inated, he  will  not  vote  at  all. 

"The  country  demands  for  its  leader  a  man  wnose  very 
name  stands  for  peace,  whose  very  presence  is  a  restraint 
upon  the  law-breaker.  Grant  means  peace.  He  smote 
secession  hip  and  thigh  in  open  warfare  ;  it  fears  him  now 
as  it  feared  him  then  ;  it  respects  him  now  as  it  respected 
him  then.  I  am  doing  no  injustice  to  any  living  man 
when  I  say  that  for  all  such  emergencies  General  Grant  fills 
the  requirements  of  the  occasion  in  a  larger  measure  than 


210  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

any  other  living  man.  It  is  idle  to  claim  that  all  our 
dangers  are  past,  because  during  the  present  session  of  con- 
gress the  Democratic  party  has  suspended  for  the  time  being 
the  prosecution  of  its  revolutionary  schemes.  The  very 
fact  that  Grant  is  the  probable  candidate  of  the  Republican 
party,  and  that  the  complete  development  of  their  schemes 
would  render  his  nomination  a  certainty,  has  awed  them 
into  silence,  and  they  stand,  even  in  his  prospective  pres- 
ence, tongue-tied  and  dumb  before  the  world. 

"  This  great  character  stands  forth  to-day,  bright  and 
shining,  the  admiration  of  the  world.  Palsied  be  the  hand 
which  would  strike  it,  and  blistered  the  tongue  which 
would  defame  it!  It  is  not  merely  because  he  is  so  well 
worthy  of  this  great  honor,  but  because  we  sincerely  believe 
that,  more  than  any  other  man,  can  he  serve  his  country  and 
promote  its  best  interests  in  that  position.  From  first  to 
last  he  has  never  known  defeat.  His  record  from  Belmont 
to  Appomattox  is  one  unbroken  chain  of  victories  which 
honored  his  country  and  secured  for  himself  the  admiration 
of  his  foes.  He  never  left  a  duty  unperformed.  He  never 
made  a  promise  which  he  did  not  keep.  He  never  turned 
his  back  upon  a  friend.  There  is  more  wisdom  in  his 
silence  than  in  the  speech  of  most  men.  There  is  not  a 
boast  in  all  his  long  and  splendid  career.  Bitterly  and 
malignantly  as  he  has  been  assailed,  no  word  of  slander 
ever  escaped  his  lips.  Prudent  and  cautious  in  coun- 
sel, he  never  fails  to  act  when  a  conclusion  has  been 
reached,  and  is  as  prompt  in  action  as  ho  is  prudent  in  prep- 
aration. In  his  first  inaugural  he  met  the  clamor  for  an 
inflated  currency  by  a  demand  for  the  payment  of  our 
national  debt  in  coin,  and  by  his  veto  struck  a  blow  at  all 
schemes  for  a  depreciated  currency  from  which  they  never 
recovered.  He  inaugurated  and  carried  through  a  plan  of 
peaceful  arbitration  by  which  grave  international  disputes 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  211 

were  settled  and  made  our  flag  and  our  country  respected 
throughout  the  world.  As  modest  as  he  was  great,  he 
never  set  his  individual  judgment  against  the  clearly  ex- 
pressed public  will,  but,  renouncing  his  desire,  he  declared 
that  he  had  no  policy  opposed  to  the  will  of  the  people. 
Leaving  his  high  office,  he  has  made  the  circuit  of  the 
globe,  and  has  been  received  under  every  flag  with  such 
honors  as  no  man  ever  received  before.  Unaffected  by 
them,  he  never  for  one  moment  lost  that  wonderful  pose 
which  has  carried  him  through  so  many  great  events.  Re- 
turning home,  thus  honored  and  thus  laureled,  the  brave, 
the  honest,  the  patriotic,  the  modest  soldier,  statesman, 
and  citizen,  places  all  these  honors  in  the  hands  of  his 
countrymen. 

"  There  is  no  elevation  so  high  that  he  is  dizzied  by  it. 
There  is  no  place  so  low  and  humble  which  he  may  fill  that 
he  does  not  uncomplainingly  and  faithfully  perform  all  its 
duties. 

'  Draw  him  strictly  so 
That  all  who  view  the  place  may  know 
He  needs  no  trappings  of  fictitious  fame.' 

"This  is  our  true  knight,  'without  fear,  without  re- 
proach/ and  without  a  plume.  Here,  in  his  own  state  — 
here  in  the  chief  city  of  that  state,  have  the  thousands  who 
are  assembled  here  to  night  met,  not  to  place  fresh  laurels 
upon  his  brow,  not  to  add  an  additional  honor  to  his  long 
roll  of  honors,  by  uttering  the  voice  of  his  own  state  in  his 
behalf  in  National  convention,  but  to  save  the  state  from 
such  a  dishonor  as  any  halting  upon  our  part  would  surely 
reflect  upon  it. 

"He  has  enemies  here,  as  had  Lincoln  and  Douglas 
before  him.  They  can  and  they  will  be  silenced.  Joining 
hands  with  the  other  states,  Illinois  shall  stand  in  the  line 
and  shall  utter  her  voice  for  her  honored  citizen.  Assail- 


212  POLITICAL  ORATOKY. 

ing  no  competitor,  the  rank  and  file,  the  Old  Guard,  de- 
clare that  they  are  for  Grant,  because  again  and  again  they 
have  marched  under  his  banners,  but  never  to  defeat, — 
and  every  battlefield  over  which  his  flag  ever  floated  was 
a  field  of  victory.  The  work  of  our  great  leader  is- not  fin- 
ished, and  will  not  be  until  he  has  led  the  hosts  of  freemen 
to  that  future,  when  there  shall  be  within  all  the  bounda- 
ries of  the  Eepublic  not  one  foot  of  ground  over  which  the 
flag  floats  and  upon  which  a  citizen  stands  who  may  not 
speak,  and  think,  and  vote  as  he  pleases.  Prostrate  to-day 
are  millions  of  our  fellow-citizens,  our  equals  before  the 
law,  but  shorn  of  that  equality.  Under  the  banners  of 
of  our  chosen  leader  shall  they  be  lifted  up? 

"  When  justice  reigns  throughout  all  our  borders,  and 
every  citizen,  white  and  black,  stands  equal  before  the 
law,  when  North  and  South,  and  East  and  West,  there 
shall  be  found  no  privileged  class,  then,  'let  us  have 
peace;'  that  Peace  which  shall  come  to  us  with  her  silken 
banners  floating  in  every  breeze,  with  Justice  and  Mercy 
bearing  her  train.  Justice  to  all,  friend  and  foe.  Such  a 
peace  leaves  no  traces  of  bitterness  behind  it,  and  smiling 
fields  and  the  roar  of  thriving  cities,  and  the  hum  of  busy 
machinery,  and  happy  homes,  and  a  prosperous  and  pros- 
pering people  mark  its  pathway,  and,  better  than  all  and 
grander  than  all  else,  there  shall  be  in  all  its  march  neither 
shackled  wrists  nor  fettered  tongues." 

The  entire  campaign,  succeeding  the  exciting  nom- 
ination of  James  A.  Garfield,  in  the  face  of  "  the  306  " 
Grant  adherents,  was  a  succession  of  orations  to  the 
orator  Storrs.  The  simple  reading  of  his  political  ad- 
dresses —  and  political  addresses  are  usually  reckoned 
most  interesting  from  the  occasion  —  create  enthusiasm ; 
but  the  influence  they  wielded  when  delivered  can  only 
be  imagined  from  their  reception  at  the  time.  There 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  213 

Was  a  bitter  fight  over  seats  in  the  Illinois  State  con- 
vention, on  the  19th  of  May,  preceding  the  national 
assemblage,  and  Mr.  Storrs  was  the  champion  of  one 
delegation.  The  Illinois  State  Register,  a  Democratic 
paper,  said  of  the  debate  : 

"  The  speech  of  Emery  A.  Storrs  was  an  extraordinary 
effort.  It  was  surpassingly  brilliant,  burnished,  as  it  was, 
by  the  genius  of  the  orator  and  of  the  poet.  Mr.  Storrs 
exhibited  his  gifts  to  the  best  advantage.  He  bore  down 
upon  the  rioters,  the  bribe-givers  and  bribe-takers  of  Chi- 
cago with  all  the  blazonry  of  his  unequaled  powers  of  de- 
nunciation, of  ridicule,  of  sarcasm,  of  humor,  leaping  the 
difficult  places  in  his  pathway  by  a  glowing  appeal  for 
Grant,  an  apotheosis  of  Republican  stalwartism,  a  shining 
tribute  to  the  flag,  and  crowned  his  cause  with  a  trumpet- 
tongued  cry  for  harmony,  for  conciliation,  for  peace,  that 
won  his  audience,  and  supplied  an  ample  apology  for  the 
claim  which  he  so  fervently  espoused.  He  wanted  only 
thirty-six  of  the  ninety-two  delegates  —  wanted  them  in 
the  name  of  justice,  in  the  name  of  popular  rights,  and 
above  all,  in  the  name  of  the  great  leader  who  had  done 
more  for  his  country  than  any  other  living  man,  and  whose 
splendid  form  towered  into  the  very  sunshine  of  eternal 
fame.  The  orator  closed  his  speech  with  a  peroration,  the 
classic  finish  of  which,  though  capping  a  faulty  argument, 
was  worthy  of  Sheridan  in  the  British  Parliament,  or  of 
Sergeant  S.  Prentiss,  when,  pleading  for  his  contested  seat 
as  a  representative,  he  electrified  the  American  Congress 
forty  years  ago.  The  victory  was  complete.  The  orator 
had  swept  triumphantly  the  chords  of  human  passion,  and 
the  vote  then  promptly  taken  gave  Grant  all  that  had  been 
claimed  for  him  in  Cook  county.  This  episode  in  Illinois 
politics  sets  a  notable  precedent  in  party  organization,  and 
illustrates  the  highest  ingenuity  of  party  leadership." 


214  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

John  A.  Logan  called  it  "  the  magnificent  speech  ". 
The  argument  was  carried  from  the  State .  to  the  Na- 
tional convention,  and,  as  Mr.  Storrs  battled  for  the 
seating  of  the  Grant  delegates  in  that  memorable  as- 
semblage of  June,  1880,  the  scene  became  one  of  intense 
excitement.  A  hurricane  of  applause  from  the  stal- 
warts in  the  gallaries  interrupted  Mr.  Storrs  as  he  drew 
his  masterly  argument  to  a  conclusion.  The  Elaine 
men  answered  with  cries  and  yells.  The  Grant  men 
cheered  again  and  even  louder,  and  then  occurred  a 
chaos  of  uproar  such  as  has  never  before  or  since  been 
known  in  a  National  convention.  Flags  were  stripped 
from  in  front  of  the  gallaries  and  waved  madly.  Dele- 
gates rushed  excitedly  through  the  hall,  interchanging 
jubilations,  some  loudly  singing  patriotic  songs.  For 
nearly  an  hour  Babel  prevailed,  and  the  chairman's 
gavel  was  powerless  to  restore  order,  while  Mr.  Storrs, 
standing  upon  the  platform,  looked  quietly  around  him 
and  smiled,  until,  in  a  sudden  lull,  he  concluded  his 
speech  with  the  words: 

"  Gentlemen,  give  the  grand  old  State  that  never  knew 
a  draft,  and  never  filled  up  a  regiment  with  paper  soldiers  — 
give  the  grand  old  State,  the  home  of  Lincoln  and  Doug- 
las and  Grant,  a  fair  chance.  Put  no  indignity  on  the 
honor  of  her  sons.  Then,  if  you  can  nominate  the  worthy 
son  of  Ohio,  John  Sherman,  do  it  fairly ;  and  when  the 
hysterical  gentlemen  who  are  afraid  that  he  is  not  popular 
enough  to  carry  Illinois  are  inquiring  their  way  to  the  polls, 
the  grand  old  guard,  whose  representative  I  am,  will  have 
planted  the  banner  of  victory  on  the  citadels  of  the  enemy. 
By  all  means,  let  us  be  free  and  absolutely  untrammeled  ; 
put  no  just  cause  for  complaint  on  us  ;  have  no  hesitancy 
in  a  candidate  who  exhibits  scars,  provided  they  are  lion- 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  215 

orable  scars,  won  in  honorable  welfare.  Select  no  man 
without  a  record ;  pull  no  skulker  from  under  the  ammuni- 
tion wagon,  because  he  shows  not  upon  him  the  signs  of 
battle  ;  take  the  old  tried  hero, —  let  us  take  him  if  we  can 
get  him  ;  and  then  I  believe,  with  the  old  guard  behind 
him,  who  have  never  kept  step  in  this  world  to  any  music 
but  the  music  of  the  Union,  and  with  the  friends  of  Blaine, 
and  the  friends  of  Sherman,  and  the  friends  of  all  good 
men,  a  victory  will  be  achieved,  the  like  of  which  has 
never  been  recorded  in  the  annals  of  our  national  politics. 
Citizens  of  one  country,  members  of  one  party,  let  us 
remember  that,  while  we  accept  no  indignities  from  our 
enemies,  we  hope  and  trust  and  pray  our  friends  will  put 
none  upon  us.  Here  in  the  midnight,  with  the  storm  with- 
out, and  these  assembled  Republicans  within,  we  are  first 
to  be  just,  first  to  be  fair,  and  victory  is  ours  as  sure  as  the 
morning  comes." 

Such  was  the  scene  evoked  in  "  a  convention  of 
statesmen  "  by  Mr.  Storrs'  oratory,  and  it  is  probably 
unexampled  in  our  nation's  history.  His  argument  at 
Burlington,  Iowa,  July  16,  1880,  was  a  type  of  his  clos- 
est reasoning;  and  was  regarded  by  the  Republican 
Central  Committee  as  so  convincing  that  it  was  made  a 
campaign  document.  Its  style  is  shown  by  an  excerpt 
from  his  discussion  of  the  various  planks  of  the  Demo- 
cratic platform,  entered  into  after  a  telling  review  and 
comparison  of  the  records  of  the  two  rival  parties : 

"  Their  fourth  plank  announces  this  doctrine  :  '  Home- 
rule,  honest  money  consisting  of  gold  and  silver  and  paper 
convertible  into  coin  on  demand,  and  the  strict  mainte- 
nance of  the  public  faith,  state  and  national,  and  a  tariff 
for  revenue  only/ 

"What  does  the  democratic  party  mean  by  'home- 


21G  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

rule'?  The  evidences  which  they  have  furnished  us  of 
home  rule  in  these  states  from  which  the  one  hundred  and 
thirty-eight  electoral  votes  are  to  be  derived  are  not 
encouraging.  From  the  practical  evidences  they  have 
given  us,  home-rule  means  with  them  the  right  to  fetter 
opinions,  to  stifle  speech,  to  terrorize  the  voter  and  bully 
the  courts  at  home.  It  means  the  White-Liner  and  the 
Ku-Klux  at  home  ;  it  means  the  argument  of  the  shot-gun; 
it  means  the  persuasion  of  Chisholm  and  Dixon  and  hun- 
dreds of  others  by  the  gentle  methods  of  assassination  ;  it 
means  the  enlightment  of  the  negro  and  the  white  Repub- 
lican voter,  by  midnight  raids,  by  burning  homes  and 
indiscriminate  slaughters.  This  is  the  practice  of  the 
home-rulers  in  the  south,  and  this  is  the  practice  which 
this  platform  ratifies  and  endorses  and  the  right  which  it 
demands.  Nothing,  however,  more  impudent  in  politics 
can  be  found  than  the  declaration  of  this  plank  in  the 
platform  for  honest  money.  Let  us  compare  the  practice  of 
the  Democratic  party  in  the  past  with  its  present  profes- 
sions. 

"  The  Democratic  platform  in  1868  called  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  public  debt  in  greenbacks,  which,  had  it  been 
adopted,  would  have  resulted  in  such  an  inflation  of  our 
currency  as  to  have  rendered  the  resumption  of  specie  pay- 
ments an  absolute  impossibility,  which  would  have  been 
the  dishonor  of  not  only  the  public  debt,  but  of  the  green- 
back itself.  They  aimed  a  fatal  blow  at  the  national  credit, 
for  they  demanded  '  equal  taxation  of  every  species  of 
property  according  to  its  real  value,  including  government 
bonds  and  other  public  securities.'  Had  this  policy  been 
adopted,  my  fellow  citizens,  do  you  suppose  that  it  would 
have  been  within  the  range  of  possibility  for  us  to  have 
reduced  the  interest  upon  our  public  debt  ?  Would  not 
the  national  honor  have  been  so  shaken  that  resumption 


POLITICAL  OfcATOR*.  217 


would  have  been  aii  impossibility,  and  honest  money  some- 
thing in  a  distance  so  far  removed  that  we  could  never 
expect  to  live  to  reach  it  ?  In  1869  the  public  credit  bill, 
which  pledged  the  nation  to  the  payment  of  its  debt  in 
coin,  was  opposed  in  Congress  by  the  almost  solid  vote  of 
the  Democratic  party.  Clamoring  to-day  for  honest 
money,  they  opposed  the  resumption  bill  which  makes  the 
greenback  and  national  banknote  honest  money.  Their 
platform  in  1876,  written  by  a  shrewd  capitalist  who  had 
an  eye  to  the  vote  of  the  state  of  New  York,  and  supposed 
that  he  would  have  the  South  at  all  events,  for  the  purpose 
of  catching  the  capitalist  vote,  declared  for  honest  money 
and  denounced  the  Republican  party  for  hindering  resump- 
tion, the  entire  Democracy  having  previously  opposed  the 
scheme  of  resumption,  but  in  January,  18,6,  but  a  few 
months  after  this  convention  met,  the  bill  to  repeal  the 
resumption  act  received  112  votes  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, all  Democratic  but  one.  In  June,  1876,  as  a 
rider  to  the  civil  appropriation  bill,  an  amendment  repeal- 
ing the  resumption  act  received  solid  Democratic  support. 
Does  this  look  like  honest  money  ?  The  party  was  not 
converted  by  its  platform,  for  the  party  understood  the 
purpose  of  the  platform.  A  bill  to  repeal  the  fixing  of  the 
time  for  resumption  August  5th,  1876,  received  in  the 
House  176  votes,  all  Democratic  except  three,  more  than  a 
year  after  the  declaration  of  the  platform  of  1876.  In 
October,  1877,  Mr.  E  wing  reported  from  the  committee  on 
banking  and  currency  a  bill  to  repeal  the  resumption  act. 
This  is  the  practice  of  the  party  as  against  its  profession. 
It  was  the  practice  of  the  party  not  only  in  our  national 
Congress,  but  throughout  the  states.  In  this  honest  state 
of  Iowa  the  platform  of  the  Democratic  party  for  1877 
deelared:  *  We  demand  the  immediate  repeal  of  the  specie 
resumption  act.'  In  1878,  still  unconverted,  the  Democ- 


218  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

racy  of  the  state  of  Iowa  in  its  platform  declares:  'We 
favor  the  immediate  repeal  of  the  resumption  act/  This 
is  the  sentiment  of  the  party.  Its  constitutional  doctrines 
and  traditions,  and  its  votes,  wherever  its  votes  would  tell, 
have  been  from  the  beginning  down  even  to  to-day  against 
honest  money,  for  which  in  its  platform  to-day  it  lying 
and  hypocritically  declares. 

"  Their  fifth  plank  declares :  '  The  subordination  of 
the  military  to  the  civil  power,  and  a  thorough  and  genuine 
reform  of  the  civil  service/ 

"  This  simply  means  that  the  military  power  shall  not 
be  used  to  protect  the  citizen,  nor  to  put  down  armed  and 
organized  resistance  to  the  enforcement  of  the  laws.  It 
means  that  the  moonshiner  shall  go  unpunished;  it  means 
that  wherever  an  independent  Democrat  determines  that 
he  will  not  pay  the  revenues  which  the  government  imposes 
upon  the  business  which  he  is  pursuing,  that  no  military 
power  shall  be  employed  to  compel  such  payment;  it  means 
that  acts  of  Congress  may  be  resisted  in  their  execution  by 
organized  bodies  of  armed  men;  that  no  military  power 
may  intervene  to  enforce  these  acts  of  Congress,  nor  to  put 
down  such  armed  and  organized  resistance  to  their  enforce- 
ment. It  means  that  an  act  of  Congress  providing  for  an 
honest  ballot,  and  for  a  peaceable  poll,  shall  be  rendered 
nugatory  by  the  surrounding  of  polls  by  armed  and 
organized  bands  of  ruffians,  and  that  the  military  powers 
of  the  nation  shall  not  be  invoked  to  protect  the  citizens 
in  the  enjoyment  of  their  privileges,  the  enjoyment  of 
which  the  constitutional  amendment  solemnly  guarantees 
them. 

"It  is  well  that  the  Democratic  party  was  exceedingly 
brief  in  its  demand  for  a  thorough  and  genuine  reform 
of  the  civil  service.  It  states  no  plan  —  it  states  no  ev.il 
that  it  seeks  to  remedy.  If  it  is  patriotic  men  —  men 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  219 

thoroughly  devoted  to  the  nation  and  to  its  preservation, 
thoroughly  devoted  to  the  support  of  the  great  guarantees 
furnished  by  the  constitutional  amendments  that  we 
desire  —  shall  we  find  them  in  the  Democratic  party  ?  Does 
it  possess  more  of  the  intelligence  of  this  country  than  the 
Republican  party  ? 

"This  party  has  organized  in  itself  the  bulk  of  the 
ignorance,  the  violence,  and  the  crime  of  the  country.  If 
culture  and  superior  education  are  desired  in  our  office- 
holders is  there  even  a  Democrat  who  will  claim  that  better 
facilities  are  furnished  for  procuring  these  requisites  from 
the  Democratic  than  from  the  Republican  party  ?  Will 
yon,  with  the  experience  of  the  organization  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  before  you,  contemplate  what  kind  of  a 
reform  that  will  be  which  will  result  from  the  election  of 
Hancock  ?  Not  only  would  the  triumph  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  fail  to  promote  any  genuine  reform  of  the 
civil  service,  but  it  would  render  such  reform  utterly 
impossible.  No  one  expects  the  civil  service  to  be  reformed 
through  any  such  curious  and  extraordinary  channels. 

"  By  their  sixth  plank  the  Democracy  declare  '  the 
right  of  a  free  ballot  is  a  right  preservative  of  all  rights, 
and  must  and  shall  be  maintained  in  every  part  of  the 
United  States/ 

"  From  reading  this  platform  one  would  almost  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  Democratic  party  had  decided 
in  its  platform  to  state  great  truths  which  it  had  always 
opposed,  and  to  assert  great  rights  which  it  had  always 
denied.  The  election  laws  of  Congress,  so  called,  were 
passed  to  secure  a  free  and  honest  ballot,  and  to  prevent 
fraud  and  violence  at  the  polls.  At  the  time  they  were 
passed  the  Democratic  party  solidly  opposed  them,  and 
demounced  them  as  unconstitutional,  and  has  since  that 
time,  even  by  revolutionary  schemes,  steadily  sought  their 


220  POLITICAL  ORAlORY. 

repeal.     The  courts  have  sustained  their  constitutionality 
of  those  laws,  and  yet  their  repeal  is  as  steadily  sought. 

"  The  whole  current  of  Democratic  history  gives  the 
lie  to  this  protestation  in  faVor  of  a  free  and  honest  ballot. 

"  They  have  never  advocated  a  registry  law,  the  purpose 
and  fair  operation  of  which  where  they  have  been  in  power 
would  be  to  secure  a  free  or  honest  ballot  No  law  for 
the  registration  of  the  voter  and  for  the  protection  of  the 
purity  of  the  polls  has  ever  been  passed  that  has  not 
encountered  the  opposition  of  the  Democratic  party,  and 
when  it  has  been  in  power  such  laws  have  uniformly 
fallen  under  their  administration. 

"  The  fraudulent  vote  of  the  city  of  New  York  for  years 
and  years  is  a  steady  commentary  upon  the  falsity  of  this 
protestation.  In  1868,  as  was  subsequently  demonstrated 
upon  the  trial  of  Tweed  and  the  examination  of  his  affairs, 
over  twenty  thousand  votes  were  cast,  or  at  least  a  fraudu- 
lent vote  of  twenty  thousand  in  but  very  few  wards  of 
that  city.  In  several  precincts  there  were  more  votes 
counted — double  the  number  of  votes  counted — than  the 
entire  population.  This  was  under  a  Democratic  admin- 
istration. They  opposed  every  registry  scheme  by 
which  these  gross  and  outrageous  frauds  might  be  pre- 
vented. 

"But  is  there  a  free  ballot  in  the  South?  Does  any 
man  of  ordinary  honesty  and  ordinary  intelligence  claim 
such  a  thing?  Let  us  take  a  few  examples.  In  1872  the 
Republican  vote  of  Alabama  was  90,272,  the  vote  of  1878 
was  nothing;  and  yet  the  Democratic  vote  was  not  increased 
to  a  larger  extent  than  the  increase  in  population  would 
justify.  Is  that  a  free  ballot? 

"In  1872  the  Republican  vote  in  Arkansas  was  41,373; 
in  1878  it  was  115.  The  Democratic  vote  in  the  meantime 
had  not  increased,  but  this  Republican  vote  had  been  ter- 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  221 

rorized,  bulldozed  and  driven  from  the  polls,  and  by  threats, 
fraud  and  violence  the  expression  of  public  opinion  by  the 
ballot  was  absolutely  and  utterly  stifled;  and  yet  the  party 
guilty  of  this  most  stupendous  crime  sneakinglyand  hypo- 
critically, in  its  platform,  protests  that  the  right  of  free 
ballot  is  a  right  preservative  of  all  rights,  and  must,  they 
say,  be  maintained  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States. 

"In  1872  the  Republican  vote  of  Mississippi  was  82,175; 
in  1878  it  had  dwindled  down  to  1,168.  This  tremendous 
change  cannot  be  accounted  for  by  conversions.  It  is  sim- 
ply a  dropping  off  of  the  vote,  not  an  accession  of  Demo- 
cratic strength,  but  a  denial  of  the  right  of  suffrage.  Is 
this  a  free  ballot? 

"In  their  tenth  plank  the  Democracy  say:  *  We  con- 
gratulate the  country  upon  the  honesty  and  thrift  of  a 
Democratic  Congress,  which  has  reduced  the  public  expend- 
itures forty  millions  a  year,  and  upon  the  continuation  of 
prosperity  at  home  and  national  honor  abroad.' 

"The  first  commentary  upon  that  is  that  it  is  false; 
but  this  glaringly  false  pretense  of  economy  will  bear  exam- 
ination. How  has  this  economy  been  exhibited?  Is  it 
economy?  In  the  reduction  of  the  army  and  in  cutting 
down  the  pay  of  onr  officers.  The  spectacle  of  a  crowd  of 
rebel  brigadiers  in  Congress,  sitting  in  judgment  on  the 
pay  of  Sheridan  and  Sherman  and  Union  soldiers  and  offi- 
cers, is  one  which  the  loyal  men  of  this  country  do  not 
contemplate  with  any  great  degree  of  pleasure  or  satisfac- 
tion; but  we  have  been  compelled  to  witness  it.  Our  army 
cut  down  and  so  crippled  that  it  is  absolutely  inefficient 
to  protect  our  frontiers,  or  indeed  to  protect  us  against 
mobs  in  our  large  cities  throughout  the  entire  country — is 
that  economy?  I  regard  it  as  the  most  wasteful  extrava- 
gance. 

"  It  refuses  to  make  appropriations  for  the  payments  of 


222  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

judgments  procured  in  the  court  of  claims  against  the 
United  States,  and  proclaims  this  as  economy.  It  refuses 
to  make  appropriations  for  the  payment  of  the  expense  of 
our  courts,  and  has  left  the  federal  courts  throughout  the 
whole  country  so  crippled  that  there  has  been  no  money  to 
pay  jury  service,  and  in  numberless  instances  the  marshals 
have  been  compelled  from  their  private  funds  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  the  administration  of  justice  in  the  federal 
courts.  This  is  not  economy:  this  is  a  shameful  neglect  or 
duty;  a  shameful  denial  of  justice  to  the  citizen;  a  shame- 
ful and  a  wasteful  extravagance. 

"It  refuses  to  make  appropriations  to  finish  uncom- 
pleted public  buildings,  thereby  vastly  increasing  the 
expense  when  completion  must  ultimately  be  made.  It 
has  cut  down  the  service  in  the  department  of  the  interior 
and  other  departments  to  such  an  extent  that  the  patent 
office  and  pension  bureau  have  been  almost  practically 
closed.  It  has  refused  to  make  sufficient  appropriations 
for  the  revenue  cutter  service,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  cus- 
toms revenue,  and  has  lost  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars 
from  revenue  where  it  has  derived  one  from  its  niggardly 
appropriation  for  that  service.  It  has  refused  to  make 
adequate  appropriations  for  the  signal  service;  it  has  prac- 
tically refused  appropriations  for  the  repair  and  protection 
of  the  navy  yards,  stations,  armories  and  arsenals,  suffering 
these  great  properties  to  go  to  wasteful  and  ruinous  decay. 
It  has  refused  to  make  adequate  appropriations  for  the 
increased  expenses  devolved  upon  the  mint  and  assay  offices, 
rendered  necessary  by  recent  legislation,  thus  tending 
to  defeat  the  object  of  legislation.  It  has  refused 
to  make  adequate  appropriations  for  the  survey  of  the 
public  lands;  it  has  made  grossly  inadequate  appropria- 
tions for  lighthouses,  beacons  and  fog  stations,  thus  imper- 
iling the  safety  of  our  merchant  marine.  And,  finally 


POLITICAL     ORATORY.  223 

by  one  great  effort,  to  cut  off  the  supply  of  lemonade  to 
the  members  of  the  house  of  representatives;  but,  as  his- 
tory tells  us,  the  supply  was  sought  for  by  individual  mem- 
bers from  the  senate  department. 

"At  the  close  of  this  remarkable  plank  which  I  have 
just  read  to  you,  the  country  is  congratulated  by  the 
Democratic  party  upon  the  continuation  of  prosperity  at 
home  and  national  honor  abroad.  But  how  in  the  light  of 
history  has  this  prosperity  at  home  been  secured,  and  this 
honor  abroad  been  maintained?  But  for  the  large  reduc- 
tion of  public  expenditures,  resulting  from  resumption  of 
specie  payments  and  strengthening  of  the  public  credit, 
and  reduction  of  the  rate  of  interest  on  the  public  debt, 
the  thoroughness,  efficiency  and  honesty  with  which  all 
our  custom  duties  and  internal  revenues  have  been  col- 
lected and  paid  over,  the  country  is  indebted  to  a  Kepub- 
lican  administration." 

Of  his  4th  of  October  speech  at  Toledo,  Petroleum 
Y.  Nasby  telegraphed : 

"  Storrs'  meeting  the  largest  ever  held  here.  Speech  a 
most  brilliant  one.  Intense  enthusiasm. " 

Said  the  Toledo  Blade,  in  an  editorial  comment 
upon  the  occasion  : 

"  The  orator  of  the  evening  was  worthy  of  his  magnifi- 
cent audience.  Mr.  Emery  A.  Storrs  has  no  superior  in 
the  art  of  reaching  the  popular  heart,  of  presenting  great 
truths  in  a  way  that  will  at  once  charm  and  convince  his 
hearers.  He  is  a  magician  in  the  use  of  the  English  lan- 
guage to  convey  grand  thoughts  and  pregnant  facts.  No 
wavering  man  in  that  vast  assemblage  left  the  hall  uncon- 
vinced that  the  salvation  of  the  country  lay  in  Republican, 
success." 

General  Garfield  telegraphed  from  Mentor : 

"  Our  people,  are  crazy  over  you.'r 


224  POLITICAL    ORATORY. 

The  Cleveland  Herald  in  a  report  said  : 

"  Nothing  but  a  full  report  can  do  justice  to  Mr. 
Storrs'  speech.  His  speech  was  the  best  of  the  campaign. " 

Regarding  him  as  "golden-mouthed,"  the  Cleve- 
land Leader  referred  to  him  as  "  the  Chrysostom  of 
Chicago." 

The  Boston  Herald  said  of  a  speech  Mr.  Storrs 
made  at  Newburyport,  Mass.,  Oct.  7 : 

"  It  was  the  ablest,  cleanest  cut  and  most  impressive 
campaign  speech  that  has  been  heard  in  Newburyport  for 
years,  many  old  residents  saying  they  have  heard  nothing 
like  it  here  since  the  days  Avhen  Robert  Rantoul  was  in  his 
glory." 

The  Gazette  of  Boston  said  of  a  speech  in  that  city  : 

"  The  speech  of  Mr.  Emery  A.  Storrs,  of  Chicago,  was 
the  most  brilliant  piece  of  campaign  oratory  that  has  been 
heard  for  years  in  Boston  —  ardent,  aggressive,  and  slash- 
ing into  the  Democratic  lines  with  a  vigor  that  reminds 
one  of  a  dashing  cavalry  charge  on  the  field  of  battle.  In 
compliance  with  General  Arthur's  invitation,  he  addressed 
a  mass  meeting  at  the  Cooper  Union,  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  on  the  20th  of  October.  The  New  York  Times  said 
that  his  speech  on  that  occasion  'gave  the  Republicans  of 
New  York  a  taste  of  a  style  of  oratory  to  which  they  are  not 
very  much  accustomed,  and  which  has  many  other  attrac- 
tions than  that  of  novelty.  It  was  direct,  pungent,  witty, 
and  forcible.  Mr.  Storrs  kept  the  attention  of  his  im- 
mense audience  from  the  first  to  the  last,  and  was  fre- 
quently and  heartily  applauded.  If  any  Democrat 
imagines  that  the  laughter  which  he  so  frequently  elicited 
was  produced  by  tickling  mere  partisan  prejudices,  he  will 
be  undeceived  if  he  undertakes  to  candidly  explain  away 
tb.ejK)ints  of  Mr.  Sfcorrs'  witticisms.'" 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  225 

The  very  variety  of  styles  in  his  great  speeches  pre- 
vented any  evidence  of  existence  of  wearisoraeness  in 
any  audience  which  ever  listened  to  him.  Take,  for 
illustration  of  this  quality  of  Mr.  Storrs'  oratory,  an- 
other selection  from  that  same  Burlington  speech,  the 
argumentative  portion  of  which  has  already  been 
quoted  from.  Take  an  instance  of  his  colloquial  style, 
enlivened  by  his  fun : 

"We  have  seen  nothing  in  the  past  performances  or 
present  professions  of  the  Democratic  party  that  leads  us 
to  conclude  that  it  is  any  different  in  spirit  than  it  ever 
was.  It  was  the  same  party  in  1860.  It  fiad  a  solid  South 
then,  and  it  has  one  now.  It  relies  then  on  New  York, 
Indiana,  and  New  Jersey  to  help  it  out.  It  relied  on  them 
now,  and  for  the  same  purpose.  The  conditions  were  pre- 
cisely the  same.  In  1863  all  the  draft  rioters  were  Demo- 
crats, and  all  of  them  who  now  survive  are  Democrats. 
Bob  Toombs,  Jeff  Davis,  Ben  Hill  and  Chalmers  were  its 
leaders  in  1860,  as  they  are  its  leaders  now.  In  1860  it 
had  Hendricks,  Bayard,  Seymour,  English  of  Indiana, 
Thurman,  Dan  Voorhees,  and  Ben  Butler  and  the  same 
men  are  leading  it  to-day.  There  has  been  no  change  in 
the  rank  and  file.  Some  of  them  have  died  from  natural 
causes.  Some  have  been  overtaken  with  delirium  tremens. 
The  cavities  have  been  filled  up  by  immigration  and  by 
births  in  precisely  the  same  quarters  where  large  Democratic 
majorities  are  found.  In  1860  the  solid  North  was  too 
strong  for  the  solid  South,  and  it  will  be  in  1880.  There 
has  been  no  change  in  doctrine.  It  declared  the  negroes 
chattels  in  1860,  and  bulldozes  them  in  1880,  though  in 
the  North  it  cries  out  to  them  to  vote  its  ticket." 

And  in  the  same  speech  read  his  sensible  digression 
upon  the  colored  question : 


226  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

"It  is  but  due  to  the  colored  people  of  the  whole 
country  to  say  that  they  have  given  the  lie,  by  their  subse- 
quent conduct,  to  the  gloomy  foreboding  and  predictions 
of  the  Democratic  party,  and  that  they  have  agreeably  dis- 
appointed the  highest  expectations  which  were  formed  on 
their  behalf  by  their  friends  throughout  the  country  and 
the  world.  It  is  but  proper  justice  to  say  that  South  and 
North  the  negro  has  turned  out  to  be,  when  he  was  free, 
an  entirely  self-sustaining  institution.  It  has  turned  out 
to  be  entirely  true  that  the  best  method  in  the  world  of 
teaching  any  class  the  benefits  of  liberty  was  freedom 
itself,  and  that  no  better  method  could  possibly  be  em- 
ployed to  secure  the  acquisition  of  seeing  to  one  confined 
in  darkness  than  a  free,  speedy,  and  immediate  translation 
into  the  light. 

"  While  these  general  remarks  are  entirely  true  of  the 
colored  people  throughout  the  country,  and  while  these 
results  are  exceedingly  gratifying,  it  would  be  strange  if 
there  had  not  been  here  and  there  mistakes  among  them 
which  I  believe  they  will  correct,  and  to  which  their  atten- 
tion ought  to  be  every  now  and  then  directed  by  them- 
selves. In  the  first  place  I  want  you  to  understand  that 
no  man  has  any  right  to  an  office  because  he  is  a  colored 
man.  Not  a  bit  of  it.  And  it  is  absurd,  and  wild,  and 
crazy  to  make  a  demand  to  the  country,  or  of  a  party,  or  of 
a  convention,  that  a  man  should  be  nominated  and  elected 
to  a  particular  office  because  he  happens  to  be  black. 
There  is  no  more  propriety  in  insisting  that  a  man  shall  be 
nominated  to  an  office  because  he  is  black  than  there 
is  in  insisting  that  he  shall  not  have  the  office  be- 
cause he  is  black.  Not  a  bit.  And  I  just  hope  you 
will  remember  this:  you  are  entitled  to  office,  if  you 
are  entitled  to  it  at  all,  not  because  you  have  any  claims 
upon  your  party,  your  country,  your  state,  or  your  city — 


POLITICAL  OBATOHY.  22? 

you  haven't;  nobody  has;  not  because  you  are  black  nor 
merely  because  you  are  a  Republican,  but  because,  being 
black,  and  a  Republican,  you  are,  in  addition  to  all  that,  a 
first-rate  citizen,  an  honest  and  upright  man,  and  capable 
of  intelligently  performing  the  functions  of  the  office  for 
which  you  are  nominated. 

"I  want  to  see  the  colored  people  compact  in  their  Re- 
publicanism and  know  no  other  color.  I  want  to  sec  them 
Republicans,  not  merely  because  they  are  free,  but  because 
intelligently  considering  the  merits  of  the  two  great  par- 
ties which  divide  this  country  as  men  and  as  citizens,  they 
shall  reach  the  conclusion  that  the  best  interests  of  the 
country  demand  the  continued  supremacy  of  the  Republi- 
can party.  I  have  always  hated  all  sorts  of  class  legisla- 
tion, all  sorts  of  caste,  and  I  want  to  see,  politically,  the 
most  complete  and  perfect  fusion  of  all  colors,  races  and 
conditions  into  one  great,  loyal,  splendid  mass  of  Ameri- 
can citizenship.  And  I  don't  want  to  distinguish  one  citi- 
zen from  another  because  he  is  black  or  white,  German, 
Irish,  or  native-born;  but  if  any  distinctions  are  to  be 
drawn  I  prefer  to  draw  them  on  the  line  which  every  citi- 
zen makes  for  himself  and  by  his  own  achievement.  You 
colored  men  must  remember  that  you  are  watched  very 
narrowly.  You  are  frequently  and  unjustly  criticized. 
You  have  exhibited  a  great  deal  of  fidelity.  Knowing  that 
you  are  observed  very  closely,  it  behooves  you  to  watch 
yourselves  and  each  other  very  closely,  and  to  see  to  it  that 
whenever  you  find  a  colored  man  false  to  the  history  of 
his  country  and  of  the  party  which  made  him  free,  be- 
cause of  official  or  pecuniary  considerations,  while  no  per- 
sonal malice  as  matter  of  course  is  to  be  inflicted  upon 
him,  yet  at  the  same  time  you  must  remember  that  ex- 
hibitions of  that  character  are  exceedingly  damaging  to 
you  all/' 


228  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

Or  take  again  his  sudden  transition  from  the  humor- 
ous to  that  beautiful,  which  almost  touches  sublimity  of 
thought,  as  exhibited  in  his  Cleveland  speech  during 
this  1880  campaign.  He  had  been  referring  to  the 
Democratic  predictions  in  1868,  when  it  was  stated  that 
the  pillars  of  the  government  were  rocking  on  their 
base.  Said  he : 

"  Have  you  seen  any  trouble  with  the  pillars  of  the 
government?  The  trouble  was  not  with  the  pillars  of  the 
government:  they  did  not  rock;  the  trouble  was  with  the 
gentlemen  who  were  looking  at  the  pillars  of  the  govern- 
ment. They  were  like  the  gentleman  who  had  been 
attending  a  lecture  on  astronomy.  Going  home  loaded 
with  a  great  deal  of  Democratic  logic,  with  a  step  weary 
and  uncertain,  with  the  earth  revolving  a  great  many  times 
upon  its  axis,  he  affectionately  clasped  a  lamp  post  and 
said,  'Old  Galileo  was  right  about  it:  the  world  does 
move/  And  should  it,  the  Eepublican  party,  succeed  in 
November  next  and  inaugurate  the  president,  we  will  meet 
as  a  subdued  and  conquered  people  amid  the  ruins  of  liberty 
and  the  scattered  fragmewts  of  the  constitution.  I  have 
been  from  the  tempest-tossed  waters  of  the  Atlantic  to  the 
peaceful  seas  of  the  Pacific,  over  the  mountains,  along 
great  rivers,  across  magnificent  plain  and  prairie,  through 
deserts,  down  into  caves,  and  I  have  not  seen  a  single  ruin 
of  liberty  nor  discovered  a  solitary  fragment  of  the  con- 
stitution. We  do  not  meet  as  a  subdued  and  conquered 
people.  General  Grant  was  our  nominee  for  president, 
and  he  was  elected.  He  being  the  candidate,  there  was  a 
strong  probability  that  he  would  be  inaugurated  if  elected. 

"  Forthwith  we  banded  this  great  continent  with  ribs 
of  iron  and  steel.  Forthwith  this  Republican  party  car- 
ried the  gold  ore  across  those  seas  back  to  the  lands  of  old 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  229 

Egypt,  and  back  to  the  shadow  of  the  Pyramids,  back  to 
old  Damascus,  and  bought  all  the  history  and  tradition, 
spices  and  gums,  incense  and  myrrh,  and  landed  them  in 
this  fruitful  West,  where  we  received  them  with  one  hand 
and  distributed  them  all  over  the  habitable  globe  with  the 
other.  This  great  Republican  party  interfered  with  no 
pillars  of  the  government.  It  found  in  that  edifice  the 
decaying  timbers  of  human  chattlehood.  Bless  God!  it 
removed  them,  and  replaced  them  with  the  everlasting 
granite  of  universal  freedom.  It  broadened  out  that 
splendid  edifice,  its  base  covered  the  whole  continent, 
each  ocean  washed  its  base.  It  reared  that  splendid  dome, 
decked  with  stars,  clean  above  the  clouds,  where,  thank 
God!  it  shines  and  shines  to-day,  bathed  in  the  glorious 
sunshine  of  everlasting  fame.  It  has  taken  out  the  old, 
foul  records  of  the  olden  time,  the  old  pestilential  heresies, 
states  rights,  secession,  the  thumb  screw,  the  faggot,  the 
chain,  the  whip,  all  these;  the  manacled  slave,  the  pad- 
lock for  the  lips,  the  throttled  thought,  all  these;  the  deep 
damning  and  almost  ineffaceable  shame  of  national  dis- 
honor, all  these  it  has  effaced  from  its  walls,  and  written 
there,  shining  and  resplendent,  living  forever,  the  grandest 
record  of  achievements  that  the  history  of  the  world  has 
ever  inscribed." 


VIII. 
THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1884. 

REMARKABLE  SCENE  IN  THE  NATIONAL  CONVENTION  — 
CONQUESTS  OF  OKATORY  IN  VARIOUS  CITIES  —  GREAT 
SPEECH  AT  BOSTON  —  COMPARISON  OF  THE  CONTENDING 
PARTIES  —  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  AT 
THE  POLLS. 

FRIDAY  night,  June  6, 1SS4-,  the  great  auditorium  at 
Chicago,  in  which  the  Republican  National  Conven- 
tion had  been  held,  was  overflowing  with  a  restless 
crowd,  assembled  in  the  expectation  of  hearing  some  of 
the  orators  in  attendance  speak  in  ratification  of  the  nom- 
inations of  Elaine  and  Logan.  The  convention ,  however, 
quietly  devoted  itself  to  finishing  the  uncompleted  rou- 
tine business.  Late  in  the  evening  certain  speakers  arose 
and  attempted  to  make  addresses,  but  the  now  disap- 
pointed audience  hissed  them  severally  to  their  seats.  A 
motion  to  adjourn  had  been  carried,  and  a  movement  was 
started  for  the  doors,  when  a  loud  call  was  made  for 
Robert  G.  Ingersoll.  lie  was  not  present;  and  then 
there  arose  a  cry  for  "  Storrs !  Storrs  !  "  Said  the 
Tribune,  the  following  Sunday,  "  lie  was  fairly  carried 
to  the  platform,  and,  without  any  other  inspiration 
than  the  excitement  of  the  moment,  made  an  address 
which  will  rival  any  of  Ingersoll's  brilliant  efforts.  It 
was  full  of  sarcasm  and  humor,  and  as  sparkling  as  a 
glass  of  champagne.  His  characterization  of  Elaine 
was  admirably  concise  and  to  the  point,  and  his  arraign- 
ment of  the  Democracy  was  the  most  scathing  and 


POLITICAL  ORATOR*.  231 

severe —  and  all  the  more  severe  because  it  was  studded 
with  humor  and  satire  —  that  that  party  has  ever  been 
called  upon  to  face."  An  allusion  he  made  to  the 
Democratic  party  has  often  since  been  quoted  : 

"I  have  seen," said  he,  "in  one  of  their  platforms 
that  they  propose  to  enter  on  business  with  no  capital 
except  the  purity  of  their  principles.  Was  there  ever  such 
a  bankrupt  concern  with  such  a  capital?  They  say  that 
is  all  they  have  to  offer  for  the  suffrages  of  the  people. 
My  God!  my  friends.  A  man  that  will  work  on  these 
terms  will  work  for  nothing  and  board  himself.  Won't 
you  think  of  that  dear,  delightful  old  daisy,  if  she  could 
take  physical  form,  which  we  call  the  Democratic  party, 
entering  into  business  upon  the  purity  of  her  principles? 
She  has  kept  a  house  of  political  ill-fame  for  more  than 
twenty  years.  She  has  entertained  every  dishonest  polit- 
ical notion  and  every  disreputable  political  tramp  on  the 
continent  during  that  period  of  time.  I  think  I  see  her 
marching  up  to  the  ingenuous  American  citizen,  with  her 
shawl  twisted  around  her  shoulders,  with  brass  jewelry  in 
her  ears,  out  at  the  toes,  with  a  drunken  leer  of  silly  invi- 
tation in  her  eye,  with  a  maiden  coyness,  professing  to  do 
business  on  the  purity  of  her  principles.  I  would  not 
for  the  world  say  anything  disrespectful  of  the  Democratic 
party.  There  are  certain  things  about  it  that  attract  me; 
but  I  regard  it  a  little  as  I  do  a  waterspout,  which  I  like  to 
look  at  from  a  distance,  but  dislike  to  get  too  near  to;  and 
when  I  see  one  of  its  processions  —  and  we  will  see  many 
of  them  during  this  campaign — I  feel  about  them  as  our 
old  friend  Strode,  in  this  state,  did  when  he  described  an 
experience  of  his  own  in  the  Black  Hawk  war.  He  said: 
'  By  the  dim  light  of  the  setting  sun,  on  a  distant  eminence, 
I  saw  a  hostile  band.  They  were  gentlemen  without  hats; 


232  rOLItiCAL  ORATORY. 

I  did  not  know  who  they  were,  but  I  knew  d — d  well  they 
were  no  friends  of  mine/  '• 

Proceeding,  he  described  the  triumphant  march  of 
that  party  to  which  the  years  of  his  manhood  had  been 
devoted  in  a  way  which  produced  the  wildest  cheering, 
heated  as  were  his  hearers  by  convention  scenes  and 
moved  by  the  magnetic  power  of  the  orator. 

"  The  night  is  closing  down  upon  us,  the  old  diabolism 
of  the  Democratic  party  is  not  yet  gone.  Another  conven- 
tion will  be  held  here  next  month.  Tilden  will  probably 
be  nominated.  It  is  possible  that  he  is  already  dead,  but, 
with  a  slyness  and  secretiveness  of  the  author  of  the  cipher 
dispatches,  he  might  be  dead  two  years  and  never  let  any- 
body know  it.  We  will  run  substances  against  shadows. 
We  will  run  living,  breathing  men,  with  bone  and  flesh, 
and  muscle  and  appetite,  against  ghostly  reflections  such 
as  he.  They  tell  us  that  he  may  carry  New  York.  New 
York  is  a  great,  practical,  splendid  business  state.  It 
was  my  great  good  fortune  to  be  born  there.  It  is  the 
old  Empire  state.  It  stands  like  the  angel  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse, with  one  foot  resting  upon  the  sea  and  the  other 
upon  the  land,  the  mistress  of  both.  It  has  the  spirit  of 
Elaine  and  Logan  in  its  bosom.  The  old  Republicanism 
of  that  state  which  challenged  the  diabolism  of  Democracy 
thirty  years  ago  has  still  within  its  heart  the  old  undying 
and  imperishable  faith.  It  will  carry  this  banner,  you 
may  rest  assured,  forward  through  the  storms  and  fires  of 
the  conflict  upon  which  we  are  about  to  enter  to  triumph 
and  to  victory.  There  may  be  those  who  will  hesitate  and 
falter  by  the  roadside.  There  may  be  those  who  will  weary 
in  this  magnificent  march.  The  campaign  is  now  upon 
us.  We  have  no  time  for  liniments  or  poultices.  We 
cannot  stop  to  heal  the  infirm.  The  lame  men  must  fal.' 
behind,  the  cripples  be  relegated  to  the  rear.  The  great, 


POLITICAL  OtlATORY.  233 

healthy,  splendid  marching  of  the  Republican  millions 
taking  up  this  banner  will  place  it,  you  may  be  sure,  upon 
the  topmost  eminence  of  magnificent  victory.  Yes,  music 
is  in  all  the  air.  I  feel  its  old  pulsings  in  my  very  veins 
to-night.  I  know  what  this  feels  like,  and  I  know  what 
the  awakened  excitement  and  enthusiasm  of  a  great  and 
mighty  party  indicate.  I  hear  the  old  songs  of  the  old 
days.  I  see  the  old  flag  with  every  star  glistening  like  a 
planet,  filling  all  the  skies.  I  see  the  old  procession 
formed.  I  care  not  where  my  place  in  that  procession 
may  be  —  whether  it  be  up  in  the  front,  under  the  light  of 
the  blessed  old  banner,  or  down  near  the  re?r  —  I  listen  to 
the  order  '  Forward/  and  I  march,  as  you  will  march,  with 
your  faces  toward  the  flag." 

The  scene  which  succeeded  some  of  his  bursts  of 
eloquence,  said  the  Times,  the  following  Sunday,  "  was 
a  demonstration  of  the  powers  of  a  bright  and  adroit 
orator  over  a  vast  and  turbulent  multitude  such  as  is 
rarely  witnessed." 

The  campaign  of  1884,  thus  unexpectedly  begun,  Mr. 
Storrs  found  impossible  to  push  aside  until  the  months 
which  intervened  between  that  date  and  the  day  of 
election  were  passed.  James  G.  Blaine  wrote : 

"  The  boys  in  Maine  are  crazy  after  you.  You  must 
come." 

Jewell  urged : 

"  There  is  no  use  dodging  California,  for  they  clamor 
after  you." 

From  every  part  of  the  country  came  letters  and 
telegrams  begging  for  a  speech.  Devotion  to  party, 
love  of  public  speaking,  did  the  rest.  Throwing  aside 
his  own  interests,  sacrificing,  perhaps,  more  than  any 
other  man  in  the  country,  he  responded  to  every  call 


234  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

in  his  power.  The  week  following  the  convention,  he 
opened  the  campaign  in  Ohio  by  a  speech  in  the  Music 
Hall  of  Cincinnati,  amid  stirring  scenes  which  followed 
his  voice  all  over  the  land.  The  Enquirer^  an  organ 
bitterly  opposed  to  Elaine,  wrote  of  this  meeting: 

"The  audience,  hundreds  of  whom  were  ladies,  seemed 
to  have  gone  daft.  People  stood  up  all  over  the  house 
waving  arms  and  flags,  until  from  the  stage  the  scene 
presented  the  appearance  of  a  vast  field  of  grain  violently 
swayed  by  cross  currents  of  wind.  It  was  useless  to 
attempt  to  check  the  tumult/'  "Mr.  Storrs,"  said  the 
same  paper,  "dapper  and  wiry,  arrayed  in  a  faultlessly 
fitting  dress  suit,  stepped  to  the  front,  where,  with  easy 
self-possession,  he  waited  for  a  cessation  of  the  applause 
before  he  spoke.  A  master  of  oratory,  his  voice,  full, 
deep,  and  round,  rolled  out  in  perfect  utterance,  filling 
every  corner  of  the  hall.  It  was  oratory  without  effort. 
Every  word,  clearly  cut  and  distinct,  was  delivered  with 
that  rare  quality — an  agreeable  sound." 

In  this  speech  at  Cincinnati,  speaking  of  our  foreign 
policy,  he  said  upon  the  subject  of  our  navy  what 
every  true  citizen  must  applaud : 

"What  kind  of  a  foreign  policy  do  the  wants,  the  emer- 
gencies and  necessities  of  the  nation  imperatively  exact  ? 
We  are  not  respected  abroad.  I  say  we  should  be.  We 
are  not  respected  at  home.  I  say  this  should  not  be.  I 
want  no  war  ;  I  wanti  only  the  summer  days  of  prosperous 
peace.  I  know  of  but  one  way  to  secure  it,  and  that  is 
promptly  and  at  once  to  place  ourselves  in  such  a  position 
that  all  assault  can  be  so  readily  resented  that  none  will 
ever  be  made.  Without  a  navy — the  sport  of  every  foreign 
power,  with  an  inadequate  coast  defense — the  sport  of  every 
foreign  power,  we  invite  assault.  We  stand,  a  great,  big, 
sturdy  nation,  with  our  hands  helplessly  by  our  sides, 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  235 

utterly  unable,  not  only  to  protect  our  interests  elsewhere 
in  the  world,  but  utterly  unable  to  defend  ourselves  at 
home. 

"The  condition  is  one  of  shame,  indignity  and  outrage 
upon  ourselves  that  every  spirited  American  will  see  is  at 
once  corrected.  I  want  something  more  than  this.  Now 
I  am  speaking  merely  for  myself  :  I  am  binding  nobody. 
The  time  has  come  when  the  old  notion  of  our  insularity 
and  freedom  from  attacks  by  foreign  powers  must  cease. 
We  are  to-day  six  days  from  Europe  ;  nearer,  much  nearer, 
than  Cincinnati  was  to  New  York  fifty  years  ago.  We 
have  trade  with  every  port ;  we  have  our  products  in  every 
civilized  land  beneath  the  sun.  Our  commercial  interests 
are  extant  everywhere ;  our  citizens  are  all  over  the  globe. 
There  is  not  a  gun-boat  over  which  the  flag  of  the  great 
nation  floats  adequate  to  protect  an  insulted  American  in 
the  meanest  seaport  of  the  smallest  nation  of  the  earth. 
We  are  interested  in  what  is  going  on  all  over  the  earth. 
Our  trade  must  be  protected  and  cared  for  wherever  it 
extends.  That  nation  is  unfit  to  be  called  a  nation  which 
will  not  defend  the  imperiled  rights  of  its  citizens  at  home 
and  abroad  whenever  they  are  assailed.  I  give  to  my  coun- 
try allegiance  ;  I  recognize  its  laws ;  I  obey  loyally  and 
willingly  in  all  cases  when  obedience  is  required.  I  pay 
that  for  protection,  and  when  my  government  fails  to 
give  it  to  me,  it  is  my  right  to  take  their  constitution  in 
my  kind  and  say  :  '  You  blundering,  bullying,  bragging, 
non-performing  fraud  of  a  government,  protect  me  as  yon 
have  agreed  to  do  or  quit  business." 

Brackets  and  parentheses  do  not,  ordinarily,  dignify 
composition;  but  perhaps  nothing  —  since  his  mar- 
velous voice  and  action  are  stilled  in  death  —  can  so 
adequately  convey  an  idea  of  the  effect  of  the  rare 
powers  of  expression  and  mimicry  which  Mr.  Storrs 


23G  POLITICAL  OttATOHY, 

possessed,  as  to  append  exactly  as  reported  in  the  Her- 
ald of  Boston  a  "  stump  oration,"  which  he  delivered 
in  Tremont  Temple,  that  city,  September  7,  1884.  The 
speech  could  not  be  surpassed  for  campaign  eloquence 
and  wit.  After  telling  of  the  great  and  sympathetic 
audience,  the  newspaper  report  ran  : 
"Mr.  President,  Fellow-Citizens,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

"  At  this  hour  of  the  night  it  would  be  presumptuous 
for  me  to  make  anything  like  a  full  and  elaborate  discussion 
of  the  principles  involved  in  the  pending  presidential  cam- 
paign. It  seems  to  me,  since  I  have  read  the  papers  of  this 
morning,  that  the  necessity  for  very  much  discussion  is 
past,  and  that  political  oratory  has  resolved  itself,  after  all, 
pretty  much  into  a  howl  of  wild  delight  on  one  side,  and 
wailing  lamentations  on  the  other,  with  an  occasional  bleak, 
dismal  whistle  coming  from  the  brush  or  from  some  obscure 
place,  intended,  no  doubt,  to  keep  up  the  courage  of  the 
whistler.  I  am  not  unmindful,  fellow-citizens,  whom  I 
am  addressing.  [Applause.]  I  know  I  am  in  Boston,  in 
the  state  of  Massachusetts,  in  the  New  England  states.  I 
am  a  resident  of  the  state  of  Illinois.  I  am  a  citizen  of 
the  United  States.  [Applause.]  I  am,  with  you,  joint 
proprietor  of  Bunker  Hill  [applause],  made  so  by  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  constitutional  amendments. 
[Cheers  and  applause.]  I  have  a  common  interest  in  Paul 
Revere  [cheers],  and  in  that  remarkable  cargo  of  tea,  the 
unshipping  of  which  led  to  such  splendid  results  a  good 
many  years  ago.  I  am  from  what  in  New  York  has  been 
characterized  the  'rowdy  West'  [renewed  applaure]— what 
one,  at  least,  of  New  England's  famous  clergymen  has 
denominated  as  the  '  riff  raff  of  the  West/  [Cheers  and 
laughter.]  May  I  say  to  you,  because  I  know  it  will  be 
soothing  [laughter],  that  this  characterization,  Mr.  Chair- 
man, has  not  greatly  disturbed  us  in  the  West.  [Applause.] 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  237 

It  has  not  broken  our  rest;  not  disturbed  our  slumbers 
[cheers],  nor  interfered  with  the  quiet  and  usual  transac- 
tions of  our  business.  [Renewed  applause.]  Now,  as 
Senator  Hawley  will  tell  you,  we  don't  lack  spirit  on  a 
proper  occasion.  We  have  an  abundance  of  it.  [Cheers.] 
"Our  state  was  the  only  state  in  the  Union,  Mr.  Chair- 
man, that  filled  its  quota  without  a  draft.  [Renewed 
cheers  and  applause.]  We  sent  over  about  18,000  more  to 
Missouri,  a  strong  Democratic  state,  which  will  cast  its 
electoral  vote  for  Cleveland.  We  give  40,000  Republican 
majority.  [Tremendous  applause  and  cheers.]  AVe  have 
not  been  made  angry  by  this  characterization.  May  I  tell 
yon  why?  [A  voice,  'Yes,  tell  us.']  We  are  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  New  England.  [Cheers  and  applause.]  We 
have  left  these  old  fields  and  farms,  and  the  blessed  old 
firesides  in  New  York  and  New  England,  many  of  us,  with 
nothing  save  the  lessons  of  splendid  thrift  and  frugality 
which  we  have  learned  in  these  old  New  England  homes. 
A  thousand  miles  or  more  separate  us  from  those  old  fire- 
sides. Our  heartstrings  may  have  been  stretched;  they 
have  not  been  broken.  [Cheers  and  applause.]  And  we 
have  built  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  the  most  colossal, 
the  most  splendid  empire  of  free  men,  free  thought,  free 
speech,  as  splendid  a  government  as  the  sun,  in  all  his 
course,  has  ever  shone  upon.  [Renewed  applause.]  It  does 
not  make  much  difference  what  preacher  calls  us  the  riff 
raff.  The  sons  and  daughters  of  New  England  propose  to 
turn  over  the  settlement  of  the  whole  question  to  their 
fathers  and  mothers  in  New  England.  They  will  settle 
that  question.  [Cheers.]  Well,  fellow-citizens,  there  is 
no  man  living  in  the  West  that  is  not  gratified  to  speak  in 
Boston.  [Applause.]  And,  if  any  man  living  in  the  West 
pretends  to  say  he  does  not  like  to  speak  here  in  Bos^ 
ton,  he  is  guilty  of  willful  and  deliberate  hyperbole, 


238  P011TICAL  ORATORY. 

[Laughter.]  We  are  citizens  of  a  common  country,  united 
in  our  interests.  We  are  becoming  in  the  West  great  man- 
ufacturers. We  are  proud  of  this  country,  as  you  are  proud 
of  it..  [Cheers.]  We  give  Republican  majorities,  as  you 
give  Republican  majorities,  and  for  the  same  reason. 

"  We  believe  that  the  glory  and  the  honor  of  the  Ameri- 
can name  are  bound  up  in  the  success  of  this  Republican 
party.  [Cheers.]  I  started  with  that  great  party  when  I 
was  a  boy.  The  first  ballot  I  ever  cast  was  for  John  C. 
Fremont,  many,  many  years  ago.  [Cheers.]  Hook  back 
upon  that  time  and  that  standard-bearer,  and  it  looks  all 
bright  and  radiant,  shining  with  the  glory  of  the  birth  of 
a  new  party  —  a  party  which  contains  within  its  ranks  the 
best  thought  and  the  loftiest  sentiment  and  the  most 
exalted  conscience  of  our  people.  [Loud  applause.]  I 
have  been  with  that  party  as  an  humble  follower,  a  private 
in  its  ranks,  never  giving  orders  myself,  but  always,  as 
near  as  I  could  be,  under  the  folds  of  that  starry,  blessed, 
old  banner  [cheers]  taking  directions  from  our  magnificent 
leaders,  Lincoln  [cheers],  and  Grant,  and  Hayes,  and  Gar- 
field  [cheers],  and  Arthur,  and  Elaine.  [Loud  applause.] 
And,  fellow-citizens,  it  makes  very  little  difference  to  me 
where  in  that  splendid  procession  of  the  millions  of  the 
inhabitants  of  this  country  I  may  be  placed,  whether  I  am 
up  near  the  standard-bearer  under  the  stars,  or  down  near 
the  foot  of  the  procession.  I  march  to  the  old  music,  Mr. 
Chairman,  and  it  is  the  music  of  the  Union.  My  heart 
beats  my  own  time.  [Applause.]  I  am  certain  of  one 
thing  —  that  I  shall  always,  so  long  as  I  live,  march  with 
my  face  toward  the  flag.  [Tremendous  applause  and 
cheers.]  I  am  not  an  independent  in  politics.  [Cheers.] 
I  recognize  no  purgatorial  politics  [cheers  and  laughter], 
no  halting,  half-way  station  between  heaven  and  hell. 
[Laughter  and  cheers.]  To  me  it  is  the  heaven  of  good 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  239 

Republican  government,  or  it  is  the  hell  of  that  diabolical, 
old,  infernal  party  [prolonged  laughter  and  cheers]  that 
has  never  in  all  its  long,  consistent,  bad,  criminal  career, 
done  a  right  thing  except  at  the  wrong  time.  [Laughter.] 

"  I  wish  to  say  of  the  Democratic  party  nothing  unkind 
[cheers],  nothing  ungentlemanly.  [Laughter  and  ap- 
plause.] Of  the  independents  it  is  my  purpose  to  speak  in 
terms  of  the  utmost  tenderness.  [Laughter.]  They  have 
left  us.  Why  should  we  mourn  departed  friends? 
[Laughter.]  When  I  read  the  announcement  a  few  days 
ago,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  they  had  gone  [laughter],  I  heard 
the  news  with  a  great  deal  of  solid  comfort  [laughter  and 
cheers]  —  a  great  deal  of  resignation.  But  when  I  read 
along  a  little  further,  and  found  that  their  absence  was  to 
be  only  temporary,  that  they  intended  some  day  to  return, 
I  confess — who  should  not  confess  it?  —  that  my  mind  was 
filled  with  the  direst  apprehension.  [Cheers  and  laughter.] 
Our  party  has  made  some  mistakes.  If  you  will  allow  me 
to  make  a  suggestion,  it  has  grown  too  rapidly  at  the  top. 
[Cheers  and  applause.]  I  for  one  am  prepared  to  exchange 
the  political  aisthetes  for  the  horny-handed,  hard-fisted 
workingman.  [Applause.]  My  feelings  have  been  lacer- 
ated, my  heart  has  been  wrung  many  times  by  the  departure 
of  the  aesthetes.  [Laughter.]  They  have  played  too  many 
farewell  engagements.  [Cheers.]  I  recognize  the  first  rule 
of  private  hospitality  in  their  treatment  —  I  <  welcome  the 
coming  and  speed  the  parting  guest.'  [Tremendous  ap- 
plause and  laughter.]  We  have  heard  in  the  West  some- 
thing about  the  better  element  of  our  party.  [Cheers.]  In 
our  plain  way  — because  we  have  been  building  up  states, 
cities  and  empires  —  we  have  not  had  time  to  think  much 
about  the  matter. 

"We  have  always  thought,  however,  that  the  better 
element  was  the  bigger  [cheers],  and  that  the  wisdom  of 


240  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

tins  great  party  of  ours  was  in  the  majority.  Now  don't 
you  think  so?  [A  voice,  *  Yes/  and  applause.]  Every 
time  I  have  read  an  announcement  in  the  West  (we  take 
the  Atlantic  Monthly  there  and  have  gospel  privileges), 
[laughter  and  cheers]  I  have  read  that  these  gentlemen 
are  exceedingly  solicitous  as  concerning  the  question  of 
the  purity  of  our  youth.  [Laughter].  May  I  be  permitted 
to  suggest,  Senator  [turning  to  General  Hawley],  and  I 
wish  you  would  tell  them  so  in  Connecticut,  the  farmers 
of  Illinois,  of  the  great  West,  those  strong,  splendid  broad- 
browed,  great,  -big-hearted  men,  those  men  who  buried  the 
nasty  doctrine  of  fiat  money  under  a  majority  of  40,000, 
those  men  are  quite  capable  themselves  of  taking  care  of 
the  morals  of  their  sons.  [Cheers.]  At  least  they  don't 
propose  to  turn  the  custody  of  those  morals  over  to  an  as- 
sorted lot  of  gentlemen,  one-half  of  whom  deny  the'exist- 
ence  of  a  God  and  the  other  half  of  whom  believe  that 
mankind,  themselves  included,  developed  from  an  ape. 
Now,  just  what  does  it  mean  to  be  an  independent  in 
politics?  If  the  word  has  a  practical  significance  at  all,  it 
means  the  refusal  to  acknowledge  allegiance  to  either  of 
the  great  political  parties  of  the  country;  is  not  that  so? 
[A  voice,  'Yes/  and  cheers.]  These  gentlemen  are  {sim- 
ply independent  of  the  Republican  party,  to  which  they 
formerly  belonged  —  spasmodically,  occasionally  belonged. 
[Laughter.]  They  have  attached  themselves  to  the  Demo- 
cratic party.  They  are  not  independent  of  that,  are  they, 
when  they  acknowledge  allegiance  to  it?  How  absurd  it  is! 
[Applause.]  If  a  refusal  to  vote  the  Republican  ticket,  to 
indorse  Republican  doctrines,  to  support  Republican  candi- 
dates, is  an  evidence  of  independence,  then  the  Democrat  is 
a  great  deal  more  independent,  because  he  in  that  regard 
has  been  at  it  a  great  deal  longer.  [Cheers  and  applause.] 
<f  Will  some  astute  logician  tell  me  the  difference  be,- 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  241 

tween  a  genuine  old-fashioned  Democrat  and  the  new  arti- 
cle, the  independents?  [Cheers  and  applause.]  They 
support  the  same  men,  and  for  the  same  reasons.  The  old 
Democrat  and  his  ally  support  Grover  Cleveland  because  of 
his  high  moral  character.  [Applause  and  cheers.]  Mr. 
Chairman  [turning  to  the  chairman],  I  cannot  understand 
what  that  last  applause  was  for.  They  support  him  be- 
cause he  vetoed  the  five-cent  fare  bill,  he  vetoed  the  bill 
shortening  the  hours  of  labor  for  street  car  conductors  and 
drivers,  and  because  he  vetoed  the  mechanics'  lien  law  in  the 
state  of  New  York.  Now  the  old  Democrat  and  independ- 
ent both  support  him  for  those  reasons,  among  others. 
Now,  they  refuse  to  support  Mr.  Blame  for  the  same  rea- 
sons exactly.  There  is  no  difference  whatever.  Mr.  Curtis 
and  Mr.  Schurz  both  withhold  their  support  from  Mr. 
Blaine  for  the  same  reasons  that  Hubert  0.  Thompson  and 
Mr.  Davidson  withhold  theirs.  They  use  the  same 
methods,  work  through  the  same  channels  and  seek  to  ac- 
complish the  same  end  in  exactly  the  same  way.  Both 
mourn  when  they  are  defeated,  and  rejoice  when  they  suc- 
ceed, and  both  will  be  buried  in  the  same  common  grave. 
[Applause  and  cheers.]  When  they  are  dead  and  their 
skeletons  are  bleached,  you  cannot  tell  the  skeleton  of  an 
independent  from  that  of  a  Democrat.  [Applause  and 
cheers.]  This  is  a  very  extraordinary  party  of  ours,  the 
Republican  party.  It  never,  in  all  its  long,  splendid  and 
illustrious  career,  has  allowed  a  leader  to  take  it  one  single 
step  in  any  direction  it  did  not  want  to  go.  [A  voice: 
'  That's  so/  and  applause.]  Never.  I  want  you  to  think 
of  that.  [Renewed  applause.]  Our  leaders  have  some- 
times left  us  by  wholesale.  So  much  the  worse  for  the 
leaders,  and  so  much  the  better  for  the  party. 

"In   1872  governors,  ex-governors,   senators  and  ex- 
senators,  judges  and  ex-judges,  left  us,  because  the  party, 


242  POLITICAL   OliATOKY. 

as  they  said,  was  corrupt.  And  yet,  how  that  splendid  old 
ship  did  lighten  itself  up  after  they  had  gotten  off! 
[Laughter  and  applause.]  How  magnificently  it  made  for 
the  harbor  of  a  splendid  success!  How  desolate  and  dis- 
comfited have  been  the  leaders  who  jumped  overboard  ever 
since?  [Applause  and  laughter.]  There  is  another  very 
remarkable  feature  about  our  party,  which  quite  distin- 
guishes it  from  the  Democratic  party.  To  write  a  plat- 
form for  the  Democratic  party  requires  the  very  highest 
degree  of  rhetorical  and  literary  ability.  I  think  I  possess 
some  ability  of  that  kind  myself  [laughter],  and  I  would 
not  try  it  under  any  circumstances.  [Applause  and  cheers.  ] 
On  the  other  hand,  there  is  not  a  Republican  in  all  the 
55,000,000  of  people  upon  this  continent  that  cannot  write 
a  Eepublican  platform  that  is  not  good  Republican  doctrine 
everywhere.  Gentlemen,  did  you  ever  think  what  would 
happen  to  a  Democratic  orator  if  he  put  his  platform  in 
his  pocket  at  night  and  got  on  a  train  which  landed  him  in 
a  direction  that  he  did  not  suppose  he  was  going.  Sup- 
pose, for  instance,  he  started  from  Chicago  and  was  going 
to  Boston,  and  by  some  curious  freak  was  lauded  at  Atlanta 
or  Savannah,  and,  thinking  he  was  in  Boston  all  the  time, 
began  to  clamor  for  a  free  ballot  and  a  fair  count.  [Laugh- 
ter and  applause.]  So  you  see  that  is  a  thing  which  is 
liable  to  spoil  with  a  change  of  weather.  [Cheers.]  Sup- 
pose that  a  patriotic  Democrat,  and  there  are  many  such, 
construing  the  platform,  after  days  and  nights  of  anxious, 
hair-pulling,  headache,  has  made  up  his  mind  as  to  what 
it  means  on  the  subject  of  the  tariff,  and  he  starts  off  on  a 
trip  and  lands  at  Lancaster,  Pa.,  and  there  begins  to  talk 
about  a  platform  for  free  trade.  What  kind  of  a  funeral 
awaits  that  man?  [Cheers  and  applause.]  So  you  see  that 
it  is  full  of  difficulties.  They  say  we  are  all  the  time  talk- 
ing about  our  record.  They  decline  to  talk  about  theirs, 


POLITICAL   OllATOKY.  243 

and  I  don't  blame  them.  [Cheers  and  laughter.]  In  the 
few  words  that  I  shall  have  occasion  to  say  to  you  about  the 
Democratic  party,  remember  that  I  treat  of  it  as  a  party. 
I  make  a  distinction  between  the  party  and  the  member  of 
the  party,  the  same  as  I  would  between  a  corporation  and 
a  stockholder  of  a  corporation. 

"  For  instance,  I  know  stockholders  of  the  Standard 
Oil  Company,  and  they  are  excellent  gentlemen,  but  the 

company .    [Laughter.]     I  know  Democrats  who  are 

a  great  deal  better  than  their  party,  but  I  never  knew  any 
one  worse.  [Cheers  and  laughter.]  And  so  it  is  about 
their  party  I  would  like  to  talk.  And  it  is  the  party  to 
which  the  conscientious  independent  citizens  have  attached 
themselves.  Let  me  say  here,  it  is  a  party  that  has  shown 
how  potent  the  silent  vote  is  in  Maine  [laughter]  and  in 
Vermont.  But  we  are  told,  when  we  speak  about  the  rec- 
ord of  the  Republican  party,  that  we  are  discussing  old 
issues.  To  be  sure,  that  is  very  bad,  but  it  is  no  objection, 
gentlemen,  to  an  issue  that  it  is  old,  if  that  issue  has  not 
been  settled.  [Cheers.]  The  preachers  of  the  gospel  for 
a  great  many  hundreds  of  years  have  been  denouncing 
sin.  That  is  a  very  old  issue,  and  yet  I  suppose  they  will 
keep  up  their  denunciations  until  sin  quits.  [Laughter.] 
The  people  of  this  country  want  to  have  confidence  in  any 
party  to  which  they  propose  to  intrust  the  interests  of  the 
country.  The  people  of  this  country,  let  me  say,  are 
pretty  intelligent  and  observing.  It  is  not  enough  for 
them  to  know  that  a  promise  is  made.  What  they  are 
after  is  that  the  promise  shall  be  kept,  and  they  have  to 
depend  for  such  information  upon  the  history  of  the  indi- 
vidual or  party  to  which  they  propose  to  intrust  such 
interest.  Now,  is  not  that  the  best  kind  of  sense?  If  a 
party  promises  to  uphold  the  public  credit,  that  party 
always  having  undertaken  to  destroy  it,  will  you  take  such 


244  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

a  promise?  If  it  promises  to  protect  and  care  for  our 
American  industries,  when  for  thirty  years  it  lias  sought  to 
paralyze  and  destroy  them,  will  you  accept  such  a  promise  ? 
[A  voice — 'No/]  Of  course  you  won't.  If  it  professes 
and  promises  to  take  care  of  our  financial  interests,  while 
it  has  for  years  sought  to  destroy  them,  will  you  accept 
such  promises?  I  take  it  not. 

"  These  are  fair,  square  questions,  which  every  one  is 
going  to  ask  for  himself,  and  to  which  he  insists  upon  an 
answer.  What  is  the  record  of  that  old  party?  If  this 
hall  was  filled  with  Democrats,  and  very  one  of  them  solid 
in  the  faith  and  firm  in  the  belief,  I  could  clear  the  hall  in 
three  minutes  by  reading  from  the  platform  of  1868  and 
1872.  They  have  never  made  a  promise  in  which  the 
interest  of  the  country  has  been  involved  that  they  have 
kept.  [Cheers.]  There  has  been  no  great  measure  of 
public  utility  that  the  party  has  ever  favored  in  all  its 
career  of  thirty  years,  and  there  is  no  good  measure  that 
party  has  not  opposed  during  that  time.  [Loud  applause.] 
Is  there  any  one  in  this  large  and  splendid  audience,  in  this 
old  and  splendid  city  of  Boston,  memorable  for  its  history 
and  sanctified  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  by  the  recollec- 
tion of  the  revolution  ;  is  there  one  of  you,  glorying  in  the 
greatness  of  our  country  in  the  past,  and  with  the  hope 
and  promise  of  the  future;  is  there  one  of  you  who  can 
point  to  anything  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  that  the 
Democratic  party  has  done  or  attempted  to  do  from  which 
you  draw  any  pride,  or  from  which  the  country  would 
have  drawn  any  honor?  Can  you  point  to  any  great  event 
in  history  which  makes  up  our  patrimony  and  heritage 
that  it  has  not  opposed?  [Loud  applause.]  That  is  a 
dreadful  question,  and  a  dreadful  fact.  Is  there  any  one 
such  instance?  The  Kepublican  party,  whose  advocate  in 
a  simple  way  I  am,  has  never  made  any  great  promises 'it 


POLITICAL  OttATORY.  245 

has  not  religiously  performed.  [Applause.]  The  promise 
of  to-day  is  the  statute  of  to-morrow,  and  ripens  into  the 
fundamental  law  of  the  land.  In  its  brief  career  of 
twenty-five  years  it  has  counted  by  its  achievemests  1,000 
years  of  the  grandest  history.  [Cheers.]  It  made  our 
territories  all  free,  and  elected  Lincoln.  [Great applause.] 
By  one  supreme  effort  it  lifted  4,000,000  people  from  the 
position  of  African  cattle  to  that  of  American  citizenship. 
[Applause.]  It  placed  this  great  country  in  the  midst  of 
prosperity  unexampled  in  the  world.  [Cheers.] 

"  Gentlemen,  I  can  never  tire  of  speaking  of  the 
achievements,  or  the  non-achievements,  of  the  Democratic 
party.  I  make  one  honorable  exception.  Governor 
Hoadly,  of  Ohio,  visited  Maine,  where  he  spoke.  He  was 
at  one  time  a  Republican,  and,  finding  the  need  of  a  rec- 
ord, he  furnished  one  to  his  friends  there.  The  story  he 
told  was  like  the  old  news  from  the  Potomac  — '  Important 
if  true.'  [Loud  laughter.]  There  is  no  one  here  who 
will  mention  what  I  am  about  to  say.  [Laughter.]  .Did 
you  ever  see  a  washed-out  Republican  that  had  fallen  into 
the  Democratic  party  that  ever  bragged  about  being  a 
Democrat?  [Renewed  laughter.]  He  is  always  proclaim- 
ing that  he  has  been  something  better  —  a  Republican  ; 
that  he  has  seen  better  days,  like  some  of  the  gentlemen 
in  the  old  states  [laughter  and  applause],  a  little  raveled 
out  at  the  edge,  and  run  down  at  the  heel,  but  with  here 
and  there  marks  to  show  that  originally  the  goods  were 
valuable.  [General  laughter  and  applause.]  lie  was  an 
abolitionist,  he  says,  when  Logan  was  voting  the  Demo- 
cratic ticket.  There  is  the  place  where  the  Democrats  and 
their  allies  agree.  [Applause.]  It  is  astonishing  that 
they  speak  about  Logan  voting  the  Democratic  ticket. 
Hendricks  voted  that  ticket  once.  [Laughter.]  But  is 
it,  after  all,  the  real  question  when  a  man*  began  to  be  an 


246  POLITICAL  ORATORY 

apostle  half  as  much  as  how  long  he  holds  out?  [Laugh- 
ter and  applause.]  Who  began  first?  Judas  or  Saul  of 
Tarsus?  Judas,  I  think.  But  think  about'  him  running 
around  in  that  Democratic  region  of  his,  jingling  those  30 
pieces  of  silver  he  got  from  the  Democratic  committee  of 
that  day  as  his  price  for  his  joining  the  party  of  purity 
and  reform,  and  claiming  that  he  was  a  Christian  long 
before  the  scales  fell  from  the  eyes  of  Saul  of  Tarsus. 
[Vociferous  applause  and  laughter.]  Logan  did  vote  the 
Democratic  ticket,  but  the  first  shot  at  Fort  Sumter  drove 
from  him  every  spark  of  the  Democratic  faith,  and  in  the 
flame  and  thunder  of  battle  he  made  himself  the  peerless 
soldier  of  the  war  for  the  Union.  [Renewed  applause.] 
Take  from  the  history  of  the  country  for  the  last  twenty- 
five  years  the  solid  achievements  of  John  A.  Logan,  and 
you  make  a  chasm  [applause]  ;  but  take  from  the  same 
time  the  achievements  of  his  detractors,  and  there  is  no 
abrasion  on  the  surface.  [Renewed  applause.] 

"The  hour  is  so  late,  however — [Voice  —  'Go  on.*] 
I  am  willing  to  go  on.  [Loud  applause.]  I  was  about  to 
say  the  hour  is  so  late  it  seems  to  be  an  outrage  on  the 
understanding  of  so  fine  an  audience.  But  let's  be  fair 
about  it.  The  night  is  hot,  and  while  you  suffer  in  listen- 
ing, I  suffer  in  talking,  and  so,  in  the  good,  old-fashioned 
way,  let  us  bear  one  another's  burdens.  [Applause.]  The 
life  of  man  is  limited  to  about  seventy  years,  and  you  can- 
not expect  me  to  spend  all  of  it  in  going  into  the  crimes 
and  follies  of  the  Democratic  party.  [Laughter  and  ap- 
plause.] It  seems  to  me  a  waste  of  time  and  timber.  I 
was  reading  the  Chicago  Tribune  the  other  day,  and  I  saw 
a  missionary  had  been  sent  from  Boston  to  Chicago  to 
organize  the  independent  movement,  which  is  a  kind  of 
'go-as-you-please*  affair,  and  requires  a  good  deal  of 
nursing.  [Laughter.]  There  was  a  grand  rally,  and  the 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  247 

whole  five  were  present,  some  with  Mr.  Gladstone's  last 
speeches,  others  with  essays  from  the  Cobden  Club,  others 
carrying  their  canes  in  the  middle,  and  all  appearing  like 
three-story-aud-mansard-roof  patriots.  [Laughter.]  They 
were  at  the  Palmer  House,  and  one  said  Massachusetts  was 
going  to  give  Cleveland  an  overwhelming  majority.  He 
was  an  independent,  and  one  of  the  better  class  of  that 
party.  [Laughter.]  Of  course,  the  statement  was  not 
false,  was  it  ?  Not  an  extreme  economy  of  the  truth  ? 
[Laughter.]  I  have  to  be  a  little  delicate  about  my 
language. 

"  I  have  been  somewhat  dazed  at  what  seems  to  be  the 
revolving  and  somewhat  contradictory  position  the  inde- 
pendent movement  has  taken.  It  is  like  the  trip  of  the 
blind  ass  in  a  park.  Very  much  walking  and  very  little 
getting  ahead.  [Laughter.]  They  say  to  the  Democrats  : 
'I  will  support  your  candidate  on  moral  considerations 
alone.  [Laughter.]  I  will  vote  your  ticket ;  I  will  march 
under  your  banner  ;  wear  your  uniform  ;  take  orders  from 
your  leaders ;  I  will  discharge  my  guns  into  the  faces  of 
my  own  friends  from  your  ranks,  but  1  must  not  be  con- 
sidered of  you.  I  still  claim  the  privilege  of  attending 
the  councils  of  the  army  I  have  just  deserted  [loud  ap- 
plause] as  well  as  yours,  and,  while  I  explode  my  batteries 
in  the  breasts  of  my  old  friends,  I  will,  with  a  magna- 
nimity, the  like  of  which  was  never  recorded  in  history, 
consent  to  draw  rations  from  both  armies/  [Loud  laugh- 
ter and  applause.]  The  independent  movement  may  have 
a  basis  somewhere.  Can  you  see  it  ?  In  the  state  of 
Massachusetts  they  issued  a  ringing  address,  signed  by 
sixteen  gentlemen,  in  which  they  arraigned  the  party  for 
the  misdeeds  committed  when  they  were  members  of  that 
body.  They  said  vice- President  Colfax  had  been  guilty  of 
corrupt  practices,  as  well  as  Belknap  and  ex-Attorney- 


248  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

General  Williams,  and  that  Robeson  had  violated  his  trust. 
They  then  referred  to  the  whisky  ring  and  Star  Route 
frauds,  but  the  Republican  party,  as  a  party,  could  not  be 
responsible  for  these,  if  there  were  such.  [Applause.]  I 
advise  these  gentlemen  not  to  go  to  Indiana,  where  Colfax 
has  an  honored  name,  and  where  thousands  respect  him, 
and  tell  such  things.  [Applause.]  It  would  not  be  pru- 
dent. 

"  But  Schuyler  Colfax  has  dropped  out  of  public  life. 
Belknap  was  impeached,  and  Robeson  investigated  by  a 
hostile  committee,  while  ex-Attorney-General  Williams 
dropped  from  office  and  has  never  been  honored  since. 
[Cheers.]  The  last  time  I  saw  him  was  at  the  Republican 
convention  in  1880,  joining  with  these  independents  to 
oppose  General  Grant  on  the  ground  of  morals  in  politics. 
[Loud  applause.]  What  was  done  in  the  Star  Route  was  in 
the  administration  of  president  Hayes,  and  was  brought  to 
light  in  the  first  weeks  of  Garfield,  and  both  administra- 
tions these  people  indorsed.  [Applause.]  The  Star  Route 
was  brought  to  trial  under  Arthur  [cheers],  prosecuted  by 
Republican  officials,  backed  by  the  party,  but  they  were 
acquitted  by  a  Democratic  jury  [applause],  at  the  head  of 
which  was  Dickson,  who  was  a  delegate  at  the  Democratic 
convention,  and  voted  for  Cleveland,  and  is  to-day  sup- 
porting him  with  the  sixteen  gentlemen  who  signed  that 
address  on  the  ground  of  moral  considerations.  [Laughter 
and  applause.]  Now,  gentlemen,  as  to  the  personal  char- 
acter of  Mr.  Elaine  it  becomes  me  to  say  nothing.  The 
people  of  the  state  where  he  lives  have  passed  on  his  char- 
acter. [Tremendous  applause.]  For  twenty-five  years  he 
has  stood  in  the  full  front  and  blaze  of  the  sun,  one  of  the 
leading  and  most  prominent  figures  in  American  history. 
[Applause.]  We  don't  take  our  leaders  from  obscurities 
[laughter],  nor  from  men  conspicuous  to  the  extent  that 


POLITICAL  OnATORY.  240 


they  are  not  known.  That  has  not  been  the  policy  of  our 
party.  [Cheers.]  The  Democrats  prefer  their  armies 
shall  be  led  by  a  skulker  they  have  awakened  up  from 
under  the  band-wagon,  because  he  shows  no  scars.  [Laugh- 
ter and  applause.]  Mr.  Elaine  has  a  tattoo  of  16,000 
majority.  [Great  applause.] 

"  There  is  only  one  other  question.  I  did  want  to  say 
something  about  the  tariff,  but  as  I  sat  in  the  quiet  of  my 
room  to-day  I  felt  I  might  subject  myself  in  this  vicinity 
to  imminent  peril  by  doing  so,  for,  when  such  a  man  as 
Senator  Hoar,  who,  in  the  West  we  had  supposed  was  an 
honorable  man  —  fair  and  honest  —  is  crushed  down  by  the 
rhetoric  of  David  A.  Wells,  a  private  like  me  may  take 
alarm.  [  Laughter.  ]  This  is  to  be  a  campaign,  as  I  under- 
stand, where  decorous  language  is  to  be  used,  and  the 
practices  of  Fontenoy  are  to  be  observed.  'Gentlemen, 
please  fire  first  !  '  Mr.  Wells  says  Mr.  Hoar  knows  nothing 
about  the  tariff,  but  many  of  the  sophomores  of  Harvard 
are  capable  to  give  the  instruction  required.  We  are  much 
obliged,  for  we  know  where  to  go  for  information,  and 
when  the  question  comes  up  as  to  the  duty  on  scrap  iron, 
we  will  leave  Mr.  Wells  and  go  to  Harvard.  When  we 
speak  of  steel  rails  we  will  go  to  Harvard.  [Laughter.] 
In  the  club  I  came  across  the  essay  of  the  Cobden  Club 
for  1871  and  1872  and  it  was  one  of  eighty  pages,  written 
by  Mr.  David  A.  Wells,  who  was  elected  an  honorary  mem- 
ber in  1870.  I  wonder  whether  he  had  been  withholding 
it  from  his  own  people  and  giving  it  to  the  British  public. 
At  page  536  he  says  *so  excessive  and  costly  is  the  manu- 
facture of  steel  rails  that  it  would  be  better  to  burn  up  the 
shops.*  He  gives  as  a  reason  that  steel  rails  could  then  be 
bought  for  sixty-two  dollars  a  ton.  Since  then  the  manu- 
facture has  increased  to  1,600,000  tons  per  annum,  and 
the  price  has  decreased  to  twenty-six  or  twenty-seven  dol- 


250  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

lars  per  ton,  and  that  is  much  better  than  the  British 
manufacturer  ever  dreamed  of.  This  is  the  class  of  men 
who  now  support  Grover  Cleveland.  In  that  same  article 
he  declared  that  before  1881  we  should  have  no  protective 
legislation. 

' '  The  fact  is  all  the  other  way.  I  have  said  we  are  all 
the  sons  and  daughters  of  New  England,  and  we  are  proud 
to  come  and  show  you  what  we  have  achieved  while  around 
the  firesides  of  New  England,  God  bless  her  !  [Cheers.] 
The  Eepublican  party  has  made  our  country  free.  [Ap- 
plause.] We  have  effaced  the  inscriptions  of  the  bad  old 
times,  and  the  Dred-Scott  decision  no  longer  lives.  The 
story  of  escaping  slaves  is  no  longer  heard,  but  radiant  as  a 
planet  is  the  story  of  a  republic  beneath  whose  banner 
every  human  being  is  free  to  think  and  vote  as  he  pleases. 
[Cheers.  J  And  we  have  the  spirit  of  a  mighty  free  empire 
caring  for  the  poorest  of  her  citizens,  and  on  this  account 
I  shall  vote  for  Elaine  and  Logan." 

The  above  is  an  almost  inimitable  type  of  the 
catchy,  spontaneous  oratory  of  Mr.  Storrs ;  but  for  a 
carefully  prepared  comparison  of  the  two  contending 
armies  of  voters,  for  a  speech  argumentative  and  in  a 
stately  recourse,  a  splendid  example  was  given  by  Mr. 
Storrs  at  Cleveland,  the  night  of  October  6,  immediately 
prior  to  the  Ohio  state  election.  In  this  masterly 
speech  he  spoke  as  follows : 

"The  reforms  of  this  world  rarely  come  from  the  skies 
down,  but  almost  always  from  the  ground  up.  This  is 
especially  true  of  reforms  which  are  at  all  moral  in  their 
nature.  The  bloody  pages  of  martyrdom  required  the 
self-sacrifice  for  opinion's  sake  of  but  few  scholars,  but  by 
thousands  and  by  tens  of  thousands  the  plain,  honest 
people  have  willingly  perished  in  dungeon,  on  the  scaffold 
and  at  the  stake  for  opinion's  sake. 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  251 

"  We  must  deal,  after  all,  with  the  great,  grave  ques- 
tions of  the  hour.  The  two  great  parties  to-day  stand 
confronting  each  other,  both  seeking  the  indorsement  of 
the  people,  both  making  promises  for  good  behavior  in  the 
future.  The  essential  inquiry  is  not  which  is  the  most 
vehement  promise,  but  which  of  the  parties  promising  is 
the  most  likely  to  perform.  I  might  admit  for  the  purposes 
of  argument  that  the  Democratic  party  in  its  platform  of 
the  present  campaign  promises  all  that  we  can  ask,  and  yet 
refuse  to  act  upon  it,  for  the  simple  reason  that  its  his- 
tory renders  it  utterly  impossible  that  it  will  perform  any 
promise  looking  to  the  honor  or  prosperity  of  the  country 
which,  under  the  stress  of  a  great  emergency,  it  may  see 
fit  to  make.  For  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  before  the 
war  it  sought  not  only  the  degradation  but  the  practical 
destruction  of  the  dignity  of  free  labor  in  this  country, 
and  why  should  I  take  its  promise  now  that  it  will  promote 
and  elevate  it  ?  It  refused  to  recognize  the  public  judg- 
ment in  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  sought  the 
dismemberment  of  the  nation  for  that  reason.  Why 
should  I  accept  to-day  its  promise  to  strengthen  and  extend 
our  national  integrity  ?  It  opposed  every  measure  to 
which  our  patriotic  people  were  compelled  to  resort  for  the 
prosecution  of  the  war  to  save  the  Union.  Why  should  I 
now  accept  its  assurances  that  it  was  all  the  time  in  favor 
of  the  preservation  of  the  Union  ?  It  denounced  as  uncon- 
stitutional and  void  all  schemes  for  the  establishment  of  a 
national  currency,  and  why  should  I  now  place  the  custody 
of  that  currency  in  its  hands  ?  It  sought  to  prevent  the 
enactment  of  all  laws  by  which  the  ballot  throughout  the 
boundaries  of  the  Republic  should  be  made  free  and  fair 
and  equal,  and  why  should  I  take  its  promise  to  make  that 
ballot  free  and  fair  and  equal  in  the  future  ?  It  has 
steadily  opposed  every  scheme  to  further  the  protection  of 


POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

American  industry,  down  even  until  to-day,  and  why 
should  I  accept  its  promise  to  care  for  and  protect  American 
industries  in  the  future  ?  Its  history  is  opposed  to  its 
promises.  I  decline  to  place  the  nation  in  the  hands  of  a 
party  which  sought  to  destroy  it.  I  decline  to  place 
the  custody  of  our  currency  in  the  hands  of  a  party 
which  believes  it  to  be  unconstitutional.  I  decline  to 
intrust  our  industries  to  a  party  which  has  steadily  and 
consistently  sought  their  overthrow. 

"  These  statements  of  the  position  of  the  Democratic 
party  are  not  mere  random  assertions.  There  is  not  a  line 
of  legislation  in  our  history  for  the  last  twenty-five  years 
redounding  to  the  honor  or  prosperity  of  the  nation  which 
the  Democratic  party  has  not  bitterly  opposed.  Why 
should  I  intrust  the  national  honor  to  the  party  which 
sought  its  destruction  only  sixteen  years  ago  by  a  declara- 
tion in  national  convention  demanding  the  practical 
repudiation  of  the  public  debt  ?  I  understand  the  anxiety 
of  the  Democratic  party  to  be  rid  of  its  history  —  its 
anxiety  that  a  profound  silence  should  be  maintained  as  to 
its  past  record.  It  has  a  record  which  it  does  not  dare  to 
read  ;  it  has  a  candidate  whom  it  does  not  dare  to  exhibit ; 
and  the  strongest  evidence  that  we  have  that  there  is  still 
some  foundation  to  work  upon  for  the  reform  of  that  party 
is  that  it  is  so  profoundly  ashamed  of  its  past  history,  for 
where  there  is  no  shame  for  a  misdeed  there  can  be  no  con- 
version. 

"Feeling  this  very  keenly,  patriotic  Democrats  —  and 
there  are  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  such — seek 
to  claim  some  share  in  all  the  glories  of  our  history  since 
1861.  Mr.  Hynes,  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  a  most  estimable 
gentleman,  a  very  able  and  a  thoroughly  patriotic  man,  in 
a  speech  delivered  at  Fostoria  a  few  nights  since  claims 
that  the  Democratic  party  is  entitled  to  as  much  credit  for 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  253 

the  resumption  of  specie  payments  as  is  the  Republican 
party.  But  in  this  Mr.  Hynes  is  surely  mistaken.  Doubt- 
less Mr.  Hynes,  during  the  time  of  the  agitation  of  those 
questions,  was  in  favor  of  a  sound  and  honest  currency, 
but  surely  his  party  was  not.  The  trouble  with  Mr.  Hynes, 
and  with  thousands  of  others  of  excellent  Democrats,  is  that 
they  have  been  wearing  for  many  years  the  wrong  label. 
They  have  been  carrying  around  a  Democratic  trade-mark 
without  really  entertaining  a  single  Democratic  principle. 
This  is  astonishing,  but  it  is  true.  It  is  remarkable  that  a 
man  should  mark  silk  goods  down  to  a  calico  price,  but 
this  Mr.  Hynes  and  others  have  done. 

"  Now,  what  are  the  facts  in  regard  to  our  currency  ? 
The  Democratic  platform  of  1868  called  for  the  payment 
of  the  public  debt  in  greenbacks,  and  demanded,  in  this 
exact  language,  '  equal  taxation  of  every  species  of  prop- 
erty according  to  its  real  value,  including  government 
bonds  and  other  public  securities.'  It  was  deemed  neces- 
sary in  1869,  as  a  preliminary  to  bringing  our  currency 
back  to  a  solid  basis,  to  assure  the  whole  world  that  we 
intended  honestly  to  pay  our  public  debt,  and  therefore 
the  public  credit  bill  was  originated  by  the  Republican 
party  pledging  the  nation  to  the  payment  of  its  debt  in 
coin,  and  this  bill  was  opposed  in  Congress,  as  Mr.  Hynes 
will  find,  by  the  practically  solid  vote  of  the  Democratic 
party,  including  James  R.  Doolittle,  who  was  at  that  time 
wavering  between  the  lines.  The  Democratic  party  by  a 
practically  solid  vote  opposed  the  resumption  bill.  Find- 
ing, in  1876,  however,  that  it  was  necessary  to  nominate 
Mr.  Tilden,  their  Jesuitical  platform  declared  for  honest 
money,  but,  to  satisfy  the  rank  and  file  of  the  party, 
denounced  the  Republican  party  for  hindering  resumption. 
In  January,  1876,  the  bill  to  repeal  the  resumption  act 
received  112  votes,  all  Democrats  but  one.  In  June,  1876, 


254  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

as  a  rider  to  the  civil  appropriation  bill,  an  amendment 
repealing  the  resumption  act  received  solid  Democratic 
support.  The  party  was  not  converted  by  its  double- 
headed  platform  ;  for  on  the  5th  of  August,  1876,  a  meas- 
ure to  repeal  the  fixing  of  the  time  for  resumption  received 
in  the  house  106  votes,  all  Democratic  but  three,  and  the 
platforms  of  the  Democratic  party,  almost  throughout  the 
Union,  demanded  in  explicit  terms  the  immediate  repeal  of 
the  specie  resumption  act.  The  contest  was  not  closed 
until  1878,  when  the  Democratic  party  as  a  party  solidly 
favored  the  heresy  of  fiat  money,  at  which  time  James  G. 
Elaine  visited  the  West  and  was  the  leader  in  the  great 
final  battle  for  honest  money  ;  and  in  the  state  of  Illinois 
that  heresy  was  buried  under  a  majority  of  40,000.  That 
for  the  time  closed  the  contest.  Specie  payments  were 
resumed,  and  the  efforts  of  the  Democratic  party  in  that 
direction  ceased  only  because  they  could  not  repeal  an 
accomplished  fact,  any  more  than  they  could  repeal  yester- 
day's sunrise. 

"Equally  hollow  is  it  for  Democratic  orators  to 
claim  that  the  Democratic  party  is  in  favor  of  a  free 
ballot.  They  called  for  it,  it  is  true,  in  1880,  and  they 
demanded  it  again  in  their  platform  of  1884,  but  the  solid 
Democracy  in  Congress  opposed  the  registry  laws,  and  has 
again  and  again  sought  their  repeal.  It  has  repealed  reg- 
istry legislation  in  this  state  and  in  New  York,  and  the 
party  which  professes  to  be  in  favor  of  a  free  ballot  and  a 
fair  count  shows  this  extraordinary  record  :  In  1872  the 
Republican  vote  of  Alabama  was  90,272 ;  in  1878  it  was 
nothing.  In  1872  the  Republican  vote  of  Arkansas  was 
41,373  ;  in  1878  it  was  115.  In  1872  the  Republican  vote 
of  Mississippi  was  82,175  ;  in  1878  it  was  1,168.  These 
instances,  in  the  main,  hold  good  through  the  entire  South. 
In  1876  the  Republican  vote  in  South  Carolina  was  91,870; 


POLITICAL   OKATOUY.  255 

in  1878  only  213  Republican  votes  were  counted.  In  1876 
the  Republican  majority  in  Louisiana  was  over  20,000 ; 
two  years  later  the  vote  disappeared  from  the  election 
returns. 

"  These  facts,  which  are  the  shame  of  our  present  his- 
tory, are  of  record.  No  language  can  exaggerate  their 
importance,  nor  the  stupendous  crime  which  makes  such  a 
condition  of  things  a  possibility. 

"  While,  in  the  main,  the  people  of  this  country  do  not 
require  a  change,  in  these  respects  they  loudly  demand  a 
change,  and  insist  upon  it  that  the  guaranty  of  a  free  bal- 
lot and  a  fair  count,  of  equality,  of  political  privileges, 
embodied  in  the  constitution,  shall  be  religiously  per- 
formed. This  is  American  policy,  and  it  is  typified  in  the 
persons  of  Blame  and  Logan. 

"For  man  years  the  Democrats  have  been  vehement  in 
demanding  a  change,  but  for  just  what  reason  they  require 
it  they  have  always  been  and  still  are  unable  satisfactorily 
to  state.  Certain  changes  we  will  have  and  do  have.  We 
will  have  a  change  from  one  Republican  administration  to 
another.  We  had  a  change  from  Grant  to  Hayes,  and  from 
Hayes  to  Garfield,  whose  untimely  death  made  a  change 
to  Arthur,  and  we  are  about  to  have  a  change  from  the 
cleanly  and  patriotic  and  thoroughly  upright  administra- 
tion of  Chester  A.  Arthur  to  the  thorough  and  cleanly  and 
patriotic  administration  of  James  G.  Blaine.  We  will 
change  administrations,  but  we  decline  to  change  policies. 
We  are  willing  to  exchange  one  Union-saver  for  another 
Union-saver,  one  friend  of  American  industries  for  another 
friend  of  American  industries  ;  but  the  poorest  Union- 
saver  is  better  than  the  best  Union-hater,  and  the  common- 
est friend  of  American  industries  is  better  than  the  most 
thoroughly  accomplished  enemy  of  our  labor  and  its 
prosperity. 


256  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

"  When  the  country  most  needed  a  change,  in  1860, 
the  Democratic  party  was  opposed  to  it.  In  1860  our 
national  wealth  was  $14,000,000.  In  1880,  under  the 
influences  of  Republican  policy,  it  had  increased  to 
$44,000,000,000  — an  increase  of  over  $125,000,000  per 
month,  equal  to  one-third  the  daily  accumulations  of 
mankind. 

"In  1860  our  manufactures  amounted  in  value  to  $1,- 
885,000,000.  Then  the  Democratic  party  did  not  desire  a 
change.  In  1883  they  amounted  to  $5,300,000,000,  and 
now  it  demands  a  change.  In  1860  the  productions  of  our 
coal  mines  were  14,000,000  tons.  The  Democratic  party 
was  satisfied. 

"  In  1883  the  production  of  our  coal  mines  was  96,000,- 
000  tons,  and  now  it  demands  a  change.  We  to-day  import 
one-tenth  as  much  cotton  as  we  imported  in  1860,  and  we 
now  export  150,000,000  yards  per  year.  But  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  dissatisfied  with  the  present  situation,  demands 
a  change.  We  import  no  more  silk  now  than  we  did  in 
1860,  but  we  produce  six  times  as  much  ;  and  still  the 
Democratic  party  demands  a  change.  Our  wool  produc- 
tion in  1880  was  four  times  as  large  as  in  1860,  and  the 
prices  were  higher  than  in  1860,  and  yet  the  Democratic 
party  demands  a  change.  In  1860  our  productions  of  iron 
ore  were  900,000  tons.  This  satisfied  the  Democratic  party. 
But  in  1883  the  productions  were  over  8,000,000  tons,  and 
hence  it  demands  a  change.  In  1860  we  had  30,000  miles 
of  railroad.  This  suited  the  conservative  Democracy.  In 
1884  we  have  100,000  miles;  and  it  demands  a  change.  In 
1868  our  freight  charges  to  New  York  from  Chicago  were 
42  cents  per  bushel.  In  1883  they  were  16  cents  per  bushel. 
And  Democracy  now  demands  a  change.  Down  to  1861, 
covering  the  entire  period  of  our  national  history,  the 
value  of  our  exports  had  been  $9,000,000,000;  with  this  the 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  257 

conservative  Democracy  was  content.  But  since  1861,  a 
period  of  only  twenty-three  years,  the  value  of  our  exports 
has  been  $12,000,000,000.  This  is  not  satisfactory,  and  the 
conservative  Democrat  demands  a  change. 

"I  am  aware  that  Democratic  orators  claim  that  these 
marvelous  exhibitions  of  prosperity  are  due  to  the  fertility 
of  our  soil,  favoring  conditions  of  climate,  and  our  great 
territorial  extent.  But  the  satisfactory  answer  to  this  is 
that  the  skies  were  just  as  blue,  the  soil  was  just  as  fertile, 
before  1861,  as  they  have  been  since,  and  that  this  colossal 
development  has  occurred  under  what  is  to-day  Republican 
policy  in  government.  [Applause.]  There  is  nothing 
impossible  with  the  Almighty,  but  he  would  never  under- 
take to  make  this  country  prosperous,  even  if  the  skies 
were  of  the  bluest,  the  soil  the  most  fertile,  and  our  fields 
groaning  under  harvests,  if  running  alongside  them  were 
a  debased  and  shifting  currency,  an  impaired  national 
credit,  and  an  unrestricted  competition  with  the  cheap  and 
pauperized  labor  of  the  old  world. 

"So  far  as  the  question  of  protection  to  our  industries 
is  concerned,  notwithstanding  the  asseverations  of  certain 
Democratic  orators  to  the  contrary,  the  policy  of  the 
Democratic  party  has  been  steadily  against  protection  and 
in  favor  of  free-trade.  This  a  very  hurried  reference  to  its 
record  will  demonstrate.  In  1876  the  Democratic  platform 
demanded  that  all  custom  house  taxation  should  be  *  for 
revenue  only/  The  Democratic  platform  of  1880 
demanded  a  '  tariff  for  revenue  only/  The  policy  of  the 
party  is  entirely  harmonious  with  that  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy  ;  for  by  the  constitution  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy  it  was  provided,  'No  bounty  shall  be  granted 
from  the  treasury,  nor  shall  any  duties  be  laid  to  promote 
or  foster  any  branch  of  industry/  The  attitude  of  the 
Democratic  party,  therefore,  during  all  these  years,  was 


258  POLITICAL 

entirely  that  of  the  Southern  Confederacy.  A  fair  inter- 
pretation of  its  platform  of  1884  leads  to  precisely  the 
same  result.  Its  language  is,  '  AVe  therefore  denounce  the 
abuses  of  the  existing  tariff/  But  it  is  to  be  observed 
that  it  does  not  enumerate  these  abuses.  Further,  ( We 
demand  that  Federal  taxation  shall  be  exclusively  for 
public  purposes  and  shall  not  exceed  the  needs  of  the 
government  economically  administered/  This  is  some- 
what obscure,  but  its  meaning  is  not  difficult  to  reach. 
'  Federal  taxation  '  means  the  tariff  ;  '  exclusively  '  means 
'only/  and  ( public  purposes'  can  have  no  meaning  but 
'  revenue,'  and  therefore,  reduced  to  our  every-day  vernac- 
ular, it  reads,  '  We  demand  that  the  tariff  shall  be  only 
for  revenue,'  so  that  its  present  position  is  entirely  in 
harmony  with  its  past. 

"  In  what  I  have  thus  far  said  with  regard  to  the  record 
of  the  Democratic  party,  it  is  entirely  fair  for  me  to  say 
that  its  candidates  stand  upon  its  records  so  far  as  AVC  are 
able  to  ascertain.  In  his  letter  of  acceptance,  Governor 
Cleveland  says,  '  I  have  carefully  considered  the  platform 
adopted  by  the  convention  and  cordially  approve  the  same. ' 
The  attitude  of  Mr.  Hendricks  has  been  too  well  known  to 
require  comment.  So  that  the  position  of  the  Democratic 
party  being  clearly  ascertained,  we  have  only  to  inquire, 
Are  we  in  favor  of  it? 

"  There  is  no  abler  exponent  of  the  free-trade  Demo- 
cratic doctrine  in  this  country,  perhaps,  than  Mr.  David 
A.  Wells.  A  Democratic  philosopher  and  a  philosophic 
Democrat,  a  member  of  the  Cobden  Club,  he  looks  upon 
free-trade  as  the  means  by  which  a  millennium  among  the 
nations  is  to  be  secured,  and  the  estimate  in  which  he 
holds  our  policy  of  protection  is  clearly  indicated  by  an 
essay  written  by  him  for  the  Cobden  Club,  and  published 
in  its  collection  of  essays  in  1871,  in  which,  referring  to 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  259 

the  tariff  of  twenty-eight  dollars  per  ton  upon  steel  rails, 
he  says  that  the  tariff  is  *  so  excessive  and  costly  that  it 
would  be  more  profitable  for  the  country  at  large  to  buy 
and  burn  up  all  the  existing  establishments  and  pension 
all  the  workmen,  rather  than  continue  the  business  under 
existing  arrangements.'  Mr.  Wells  proceeds  to  state  in  the 
same  essay  that  in  the  event  this  tariff  had  not  been 
imposed,  steel  rails  could  have  been  laid  down  in  New 
York  for  sixty-two  dollars  a  ton  ;  and  he  cheers  and  grat- 
ifies his  English  brethren  at  the  close  of  his  essay  by  say- 
ing :  *  It  is  safe  to  predict  that  ten  years  will  not  elapse 
before  every  vestige  of  restrictive  and  discriminating 
legislation  will  be  etruck  from  the  national  statute  book/ 
"The  advocates  of  protection  have  always  insisted  that 
such  a  spirit  of  competition  grows  up  from  it  as  not  to 
enhance  but  rather  to  cheapen  the  product,  and  this  has 
steadily  been  denied  by  the  free-trader.  How  greatly  Mr. 
Wells  was  at  fault  the  experience  of  the  years  since  1871, 
when  this  remarkable  essay  was  written,  has  demonstrated. 
At  that  time  this  great  industry  was  practically  in  its 
infancy  in  this  country  ;  but  encouraged  and  stimulated 
by  protection,  it  has  developed  to  such  an  extent  that  our 
capacity  is  greater  than  that  of  any  other  country  on  the 
face  of  the  earth,  and  steel  rails  manufactured  by  our  own 
people  arc  to-day  for  sale  in  the  American  market  at  the 
rate  of  $27  per  ton.  Had  the  advice  of  Mr.  Wells  been 
followed  the  thousands  and  the  tens  and  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  men  engaged  in  these  establishments  would 
have  found  no  employment ;  the  tens  of  thousands  of  men 
engaged  in  the  various  branches  of  industry  collateral  to 
this  would  have  found  no  employment.  Our  own  steel 
rail  manufactories  would  have  been  destroyed  by  the  influx 
of  the  English  product,  and  the  instant  that  result  was 
accomplished  prices  would  have  been  advanced  and  the 


260  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

transportation  interests  of  this  country  would  have  been 
chained  to  the  car  of  the  English  manufacturer. 

"  I  do  not  need  in  this  presence  to  descant  upon  nor 
argue  the  case  of  protection  as  against  free-trade.  It  is 
enough,  I  apprehend,  for  me  to  show  what  the  attitude  of 
our  parties  really  is.  The  figures  which  I  have  already 
given  demonstrate  that  every  interest  is  promoted  by  pro- 
tection. The  price  of  labor  is  advanced  and  it  has  been 
the  policy  of  the  Republican  party  from  the  beginning  so 
to  legislate  that  there  might  be  an  honest  day's  wages  for 
an  honest  day's  toil  paid  in  honest  money.  Mr.  Elaine 
uses  this  emphatic  language,  and  covers  not  only  the  ground 
of  protecting  the  manufactured  article,  but  protecting  the 
laborer  himself  :  '  The  Republican  party  has  protected  the 
free  labor  of  America  so  that  its  compensation  is  larger 
than  is  realized  in  any  other  country,  and  it  has  guarded 
our  people  against  the  unfair  competition  of  contract  labor 
from  China,  and  may  be  called  upon  to  prohibit  the 
growth  of  a  similar  evil  from  Europe.  It  is  obviously 
unfair  to  permit  capitalists  to  make  contracts  for  cheap 
labor  in  foreign  countries  to  the  hurt  and  disparagement 
of  the  labor  of  American  citizens/  This  is  the  doctrine 
of  our  candidate.  It  covers  the  whole  ground  of  the  con- 
troversy. And  on  this  great  vital  question,  in  which  the 
hearths  and  homes  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  indus- 
trious citizens  throughout  this  country  are  involved, 
Grover  Cleveland  has  not  one  word  to  say,  and,  so  far  as 
we  know,  has  never  had  a  thought. 

te  The  exhibit  that  I  have  made  of  the  wonderful  growth 
of  our  country  since  1860  encounters  one  extraordinary 
exception,  viz.,  our  shipping  interests,  and  with  reference 
to  those  Mr.  Hendricks  says  that  the  obituary  of  our  mer- 
chant marine  is  written  in  our  tariff  and  shipping  laws. 
If  Mr.  Hendricks  does  not  know  that  this  statement  is  false 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  2G1 

he  is  not  nearly  so  well  versed  in  the  history  of  his  coun- 
try and  of  that  great  interest  as  a  candidate  for  vice-presi- 
dent surely  ought  to  be.  Now,  what  are  the  facts,  and 
where  shall  we  seek  the  explanation  of  this  decline  in  our 
shipping  interests?  First  it  is  important  to  mention  that 
from  1855  to  1861  there  was  a  relative  decrease,  for  reasons 
surely  not  attributable  to  the  Republican  party,  of  over  16 
per  cent.  In  1848  the  value  of  the  total  imports  and 
exports  in  American  ships  was  about  $240,000,000  against 
about  $71, 000,000  in  foreign  ships,  and  the  British  govern- 
ment then  paid  $3,250.000  annually  as  subsidies.  From 
that  time  she  at  once  began  increasing  her  subsidies,  and 
at  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  in  1861  they  were  nearly 
five  million  dollars,  while  our  tonnage  had  run  down  from 
five  hundred  millions  in  1860  to  three  hundred  and  eighty- 
one  millions  in  1861.  In  the  years  1870  and  1871,  in 
response  to  the  Pacific  Mail  subsidy,  Great  Britain  ran  her 
subsidies  up  to  over  six  millions.  So  that  in  1882,  by  this 
policy,  she  had  reduced  the  value  of  our  imports  and  exports 
under  our  flag  to  two  hundred  and  forty -two  millions,  and 
had  increased  hers  to  one  billion  three  hundred  millions. 
It  is  idle  to  talk  of  the  individual  shipbuilder  competing 
not  only  against  the  British  shipbuilder,  but  the  British 
government  as  well.  The  policy  pursued  by  the  British 
government  has  been  wise.  The  value  of  the  English  fleet 
is  to-day  $1,000,000,000,  and  of  this  $900, 000, 000  has  been 
expended  for  labor.  This  policy  has  given  employment  to 
240,000  men  regularly  and  220,000  more  to  run  the  ships. 
The  gross  earnings  of  this  fleet  have  been  $330,000,000. 
Our  country  pays  $100,000,000  for  the  service  of  these 
ships,  and  now  the  clamor  is  for  free  ships.  Free  ships 
will  not  relieve  us.  Great  Britain  taight  present  to  us 
five  hundred  vessels  free  of  charge,  and  yet  as  the  case  now 
stands  we  could  not  successfully  encounter  the  competi- 


POLITICAL   ORATORY. 


tion;  for  behind  the  English  ship-owner  and  builder  and 
master  stands,  as  I  have  said,  the  British  treasury,  and 
until  the  treasury  of  the  United  States,  which  has  granted 
hundreds  of  millions  of  subsidies  to  railroads,  shall  hold 
its  shield  over  and  stand  behind  the  American  ship-owner 
and  builder  it  is  idle  to  look  for  a  change  in  the  present 
condition  of  affairsr  Does  not  this  demonstrate  that  we 
need  an  American  policy?" 

This  political  campaign  of  1884  —  the  last  one  he  was 
destined  to  adorn  —  ended  with  the  defeat  of  the  Repub- 
lican party,  but  throughout  its  months  of  close  contest 
the  oratorical  powers  of  Mr.  Storrs  won  victory  after 
victory.  He  had  earnestly  advocated,  both  prior  to  the 
Republican  convention  and  as  a  delegate,  the  renomina- 
tion  of  Chester  A.  Arthur,  whose  presidential  career 
had  reflected  dignity  and  honor  upon  his  party  ;  but, 
true  to  his  often-repeated  expression  that  the  will  of 
the  majority  should  rule  in  politics,  upon  the  selection  of 
Elaine  and  Logan  he  championed  their  cause  most  val- 
iantly and  untiringly.  As  he  said  at  Boston,  he  recog- 
nized "no  purgatorial  politics,  no  halting,  half-way 
station  between  heaven  and  hell." 


IX. 

THE  TARIFF  ISSUE. 

AN  EVER-EXISTING  QUESTION  —  PARALLEL  BETWEEN  THE 
ECONOMIC  POSITION  IN  1870  AND  1888  —  ADDRESS  BY 
MR.  STORRS  AT  SPRINGFIELD  —  REASONS  FOR  CHANGE 
IN  UTTERANCES  —  THE  OTHER  SIDE  OF  THE  FENCE. 

THE  economic  policy  of  the  administration  is  with 
us  an  open  question,  upon  which  men  of  both  the 
great  political  parties  are  divided  in  opinion.  The  his- 
toric issues  which  make  an  impassable  gulf  between  the 
parties  will  always  remain  as  a  reason  for  distinct  party 
existence,  even  though  a  temporary  coalition  on  the 
tariff  question  should  decide  the  event  of  one  presiden- 
tial election. 

In  1870  there  was  a  state  of  affairs  in  this  country 
exactly  parallel  to  that  which  presents  itself  for  consid- 
eration to-day.  There  was  a  needless  surplus  of  over 
one  hundred  millions  of  dollars  in  the  Treasury,  and  the 
people  generally  were  crying  out  for  a  reduction  of  the 
heavy  burdens  of  taxation  imposed  for  the  purpose  of 
carrying  on  the  war,  and  to  which  they  had  patriot- 
ically consented  as  a  necessary  war  measure.  These 
taxes  were  raised  by  means  of  the  most  oppressive 
prohibitive  tariff  on  foreign  goods,  resulting  in  a  cor- 
respondingly high  tax  on  the  consumer  of  goods  of 
domestic  manufacture;  and  now  that  the  war  was  ended, 
and  the  government  had  an  enormous  surplus  of  one 

263 


264  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

hundred  millions  of  dollars  in  the  Treasury,  men  of  all 
shades  of  political  opinion  naturally  thought  the  time 
had  come  for  a  substantial  measure  of  relief. 

Mr.  Storrs  addressed  a  convention  at  Springfield, 
111.,  which  was  largely  made  up  of  agricultural  repre- 
sentatives, and  proved  that  by  his  power  of  lucid  expo- 
sition and  happy  illustration  he  .could  make  even  an 
economic  question  interesting.  His  address  was  a  mas- 
terly exposition  of  the  injustice  of  the  existing  tariff, 
and  of  the  protectionist  fallacies  which  were  then  every- 
where being  brought  forward  in  favor  of  its  continuance. 
In  later  years  he  saw  reason  to  modify  his  opinions,  under 
circumstances  which  require  to  be  stated  in  order  to 
make  his  later  utterance  on  this  question  intelligible. 
His  free-trade  manifesto  in  1870  was  as  follows : 

"  The  grave  political  questions  arising  during  the  prog- 
ress of  the  rebellion,  and  the  questions  resulting  from  the 
war,  as  affecting  the  restoration  of  the  seceding  States,  are 
so  far  settled  at  least  as  to  justify  the  direction  of  public 
attention  to,  and  the  discussion  of,  questions  of  a  financial 
character,  which  are,  whether  we  would  have  it  so  or  not, 
pressing  for  decision. 

"  It  may  quite  safely  be  said  that  no  attempt  at  all 
serious  in  its  character  will  be  made  by  any  political  party 
to  re-open  the  questions  settled  by  the  war.  The  right  of 
secession  from  the  Union  was  conclusively  denied  at  Appo- 
rnatox  Court  House.  The  freedom  of  the  slave  is  an  accom- 
plished fact.  The  repudiation  of  the  national  debt  has 
received  its  quietus  at  the  hands  of  the  people  and  in  Con- 
gress; and  although  there  are  wide  differences  of  opinion 
still  existing  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the  debt  shall  be 
paid,  it  is  quite  safe  to  say  that  all  parties  are  agreed  that 
it  shall  be  paid. 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  265 

"  During  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  it  was  deemed 
necessary,  in  order  to  enable  the  government  to  meet  the 
gigantic  expenses  which  its  prosecution  entailed,  to  impose 
upon  every  conceivable  product  of  human  use,  wear  or 
consumption  heavier  tariffs  than  had  ever  before  been 
known  in  our  our  history.  Taxes  were  also  levied  upon 
nearly  everything  that  we  ate  or  drank  or  wore,  upon  the 
product  of  our  industry,  upon  the  articles  which  we  manu- 
factured, and  upon  the  incomes  which  are  derived  from 
the  prosecution  of  our  business,  whatever  that  business 
might  be.  But  little  complaint  was  made  against  these 
tariffs  and  taxes  while  the  war  was  pending.  They  were 
regarded  by  the  great  macs  of  the  people  as  war  measures, 
and  to  cease  when  the  war  itself  ceased.  Moreover,  as 
every  form  of  industry  and  almost  every  character  of  busi- 
ness was  stimulated  to  a  feverish  activity  by  the  vast  require- 
ments of  the  government,  aided  in  no  small  degree  by  a 
paper  currency,  these  taxes,  onerous  as  they  were,  were 
easily  paid,  and  hence,  during  that  period  of  time,  public 
complaints  were  not  frequent.  But  the  war  finally  ended. 
The  vast  demands  of  the  government  upon  the  indus- 
try of  the  country  ceased.  Nearly  a  million  of  men 
who  had  been  engaged  in  the  armies,  relieved  from  those 
duties,  returned  quietly  but  suddenly  to  their  ordinary 
pursuits.  As  the  currency  was  contracted  and  appre- 
ciated in  value,  prices  began  to  shrink,  and  under  such 
a  change  of  circumstances  the  burdens  of  taxation  began 
at  once  to  be  felt,  and  the  desire  in  some  measure  to  be 
relieved  of  those  burdens  came  to  be  almost  universally 
expressed,  and  the  necessity  for  some  such  relief  is  urgent 
and  undeniable. 

"I  have  said  that  the  imposition  of  the  heavy  tariff 
during  the  war,  and  the  general  scheme  of  taxation  then 
adopted,  were  generally  regarded  as  war  measures  to  be 


266  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

dispensed  with  when  the  war  itself  should  cease.  The  war 
ceased  four  years  ago;  but  the  tariffs  have  not  ceased,  nor 
have  they  even  been  lessened.  Nay,  they  have  been 
increased  since  the  close  of  the  war. 

"  The  requirements  of  the  government  are  certainly  not 
as  great  as  they  were  five  years  ago.  Its  expenses  have 
been,duringthe  short  period  of  time  that  General  Grant  has 
been  President,  reduced  many  millions.  A  vast  amount 
of  the  national  debt  has  already  been  paid,  and  in  the 
midst  of  general  business  depression  the  over-burdened 
public  are  curiously  enough  confronted  by  a  surplus  which 
will,  during  the  year  1869-70,  reach  at  least  one  hundred 
millions,  and  probably  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  millions 
of  dollars.  A  surplus  so  gigantic  demonstrates,  better  than 
any  argument  could  possibly  do,  that  taxation  is  unneces- 
sarily high.  The  fact  that  the  government  will  have, 
during  the  current  year,  from  one  hundred  to  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  millions  of  dollars  beyond  its  actual  wants 
and  necessities,  is  of  the  greatest  significance  when  placed 
by  the  side  of  the  other  universally  conceded  fact  that 
taxes  and  tariffs  are  seriously  burdening  the  industry  and 
the  prosperity  of  the  people. 

"  A  demand  to  reduce  the  tariff  to  something  like  its 
former  proportions  can  not  be  met  by  the  answer  that  the 
necessities  of  the  government,  in  the  payment  of  the  prin- 
cipal or  interest  of  the  public  debt,  require  that  the  present 
rate  or  tariffs  shall  be  maintained,  for  the  government  is 
certain  to  have,  during  the  current  year,  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  million  dollars  more  than  it  will  require  for  the 
payment  of  all  its  expenses,  including  the  maturing  interest 
upon  its  public  debt.  However  desirable  the  speedy  payment 
of  the  national  debt  may  be  regarded,  there  are  probably 
but  very  few  men  who  would  deem  it  wise  or  prudent  to 
attempt  its  entire  payment  within  a  period  of  ten  or  fifteen 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  26? 

years,  nor  would  the  people  readily  consent  that  from  one 
hundred  millions  of  dollars  to  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
millions  of  dollars  over  and  above  the  interest  upon  the 
debt  and  the  ordinary  expenses  of  the  government  should 
be  yearly  raised  by  taxation  and  tariffs,  even  were  that  sum 
to  be  religiously  appropriated  toward  such  payment. 

"  That  the  people  are  under  a  serious  and  oppressive 
burden  of  taxation  is  a  fact  so  conspicuous  that  it  can  not 
be  denied.  How  shall  that  burden  be  lightened  ?  is  a  ques- 
tion now  being  asked  in  language  so  emphatic  chat  some 
satisfactory  answer  must  be  made  to  it.  The  present 
administration  has  achieved  much  by  the  steady  reduction 
of  the  national  expenses  and  by  increased  efficiency  in  the 
collection  of  the  revenue;  but  still  there  stands,  in  a  time 
of  profound  peace,  an  enormous  tariff,  the  effect  of  which 
is  felt  in  every  department  of  business,  and  the  mainte- 
nance of  which  enhances  the  cost  of  living  of  every  man  in 
the  land.  Why  should  that  tariff  bo  continued  ?  The  fact 
of  the  surplus  to  which  I  have  referred  demonstrates  that 
it  is  not  necessary  for  the  support  of  the  government,  and 
so  those  who  are  interested  in  maintaining  it  are  com- 
pelled to  place  their  demands  upon  what  they  call  the 
'protection  of  American  industry/ 

"  I  propose  this  evening  to  discuss  a  few  general  prin- 
ciples affecting  the  theory  of  protection.  It  will  be  quite 
impossible  to  enter  very  largely,  if  indeed  at  all,  into  detail. 
And  first  I  will  inquire  precisely  what  is  meant  by  protect- 
ing American  industry  ?  Against  what,  or  against  whom, 
is  American  industry  to  be  protected  ?  Who  attacks,  or 
proposes  to  attack,  American  industry?  How  is  the  attack 
made  ?  Is  American  industry  so  feeble  that  it  can  not, 
without  assistance  from  the  government,  protect  itself  ? 

"These  are  all  vital  questions.  If  no  one  is  attacking 
American  industry,  it  needs  no  protection.  If  it  is  able  to 


268  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

defend  itself,  it  should  call  for  no  protection.  The  forms 
of  American  industry  are  wonderfully  diversified.  The 
great  body  of  the  farmers  of  the  country  constitute  a 
large  element  of  what  may  be  called  American  industry, 
and  I  know  of  no  attack  upon  them  so  serious  in  its  char- 
acter as  that  made  by  the  tariff;  and  if  the  farmers  need 
protection  against  anything,  it  is  against  protection. 
There  are  thousands  of  printers  in  the  country;  who 
attacks  or  proposes  to  attack  them?  No  one,  except  it  be 
the  tariff,  which  enhances  the  cost  of  the  material  with 
which  their  industry  is  carried  on;  of  the  clothes  which  they 
wear;  of  the  coal  which  they  burn  ;  of  the  lumber  with 
which  their  homes  are  built ;  of  the  salt  which  they  con- 
sume, and  of  the  books  which  they  read.  There  are  thou- 
sands fo  ship-builders  in  the  country;  who  attacks  them 
and  their  interests,  and  from  what  enemy  do  they  need  to 
be  protected  ?  The  deserted  ship-yards  of  the  East  answer 
this  question — they  need  to  be  protected  against  protection, 
and  that  is  all  the  protection  they  need.  The  thousands 
and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  carpenters,  and  joiners,  boot 
and  shoe  makers,  blacksmiths,  and  the  daily  toilers  with 
their  hands,  upon  the  land  or  upon  the  sea,  are  threatened 
with  no  attack  against  which,  for  their  own  protection,  the 
intervention  of  the  government  is  necessary. 

"The  fundamental  principle  of  American  politics  is 
'  the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number.*  As  a  member 
of  the  Republican  party,  I  at  the  organization  of  that  party 
oelieved  that  the  institution  of  slavery  w?3  a  special  inter- 
est. I  was  willing  to  say  of  it,  *  if  it  can  stand  up  and  sus- 
tain itself  against  the  sharp  and  eager  competition  of  free 
labor,  let  it  it  stand.  If  it  can  not,  let  it  fall.  I  am 
opposed  to  protecting  it,  for  the  protection  of  that  interest 
is  a  war  upon  all  other  interests.'  I  deny  that  the  imposi- 
tion of  heavy  tariffs  upon  particular  articles  of  manufacture 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  269 

is  protection.  It  is  a  burden  instead  of  a  protection ;  a 
burden  upon  all  those  who  use  or  consume  such  articles;  a 
bounty  to  the  persons  manufacturing  them,  that  bounty 
being  paid  by  the  consumer ;  and  if  the  consumers  are 
more  numerous  than  the  manufacturers,  the  fundamental 
idea  of  our  politics  is  at  once  violated,  government  then 
being  administered,  not  for  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest 
number,  but  for  the  greatest  good  to  the  least  number,  and 
the  least  good  to  the  greater  number.  Moreover  it  is  not 
the  policy  of  our  government  to  confer  special  privileges 
upon  any  special  classes  of  men.  Our  theory  is  that  of 
individual  development,  of  leaving  each  man  the  architect 
of  his  own  fortunes.  All  that  our  government,  or  indeed 
any  government,  should  do  is  to  see  to  it  that  in  the  race 
each  man  starts,  before  the  law,  even  with  his  neighbor. 
In  such  a  race,  to  place  extra  weights  upon  the  swift- 
footed  and  the  strong-lunged  man  is  not,  in  fact,  protec- 
tion to  the  weak-kneed  and  the  narrow-chested  man.  He 
runs  no  faster,  nor  will  his  legs  or  lungs  hold  out  any 
longer,  by  reason  of  the  weights  which  are  put  upon  his 
competitor.  He  may,  under  such  circumstances,  win  in 
the  race  ;  but  the  purpose  of  government  is  that  the  swiftest, 
and  not  that  the  slowest  man,  shall  win.  Who  would 
dream  of  calling  such  a  policy  '  the  protection  of  Ameri- 
can speed,  wind  and  bottom '  ?  In  such  a  race  I  would 
prefer  to  see  the  iron  manufacturer  and  the  farmer  start 
even;  but,  if  the  farmer  is  to  be  loaded  down  with  heavy 
heavy  weights  of  taxation,  and  not  only  that,  shall  be  com- 
pelled to  stop  and  lift  his  competitor  over  all  the  rough 
places  which  he  may  encounter  on  the  route,  I  should  call 
it  a  very  unfair  race,  and  would  never  think,  were  it  not 
suggested  by  the  iron  manufacturer  himself,  that  I  had  all 
the  time  been  protecting  American  industry.  Reason  and 
refine  upon  it  as  we  may,  protection  to  any  manufacturing 


270  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

interest  means  simply  such  legislation  as  enables  the  man- 
ufacturer to  sell  his  manufactured  article  for  a  higher  price 
than  he  otherwise  could  obtain,  and  which  compels  the 
consumer  to  pay  for  such  article  a  higher  price  than  he 
would  otherwise  be  compelled  to  pay.  If  it  does  not  mean 
this,  it  means  nothing.  If  the  tariff  which  is  imposed  for 
the  purpose  of  protection  does  not  enable  the  manufacturer 
to  sell  his  wares  at  a  higher  price  than  they  would  com- 
mand without  the  tariff,  of  what  use  is  the  tariff  to  him? 
For  the  only  way  in  which  he  can  be  benefited  is  by  the 
enhanced  price.  This  enhanced  price  the  consumer  is 
obliged  to  pay,  not  to  the  government,  but  to  the  manu- 
facturer ;  and  thus  one  kind  of  industry  is  compelled  to 
pay  tribute  to  another.  A  special  class  is  privileged  and 
enriched  at  the  expense  and  to  the  impoverishment  of 
another  class.  The  home  manufacturer  is  completely  pro- 
tected only  when  he  succeeds  in  shutting  out  and  exclud- 
ing from  competition  with  him  the  wares  of  the  foreign 
manufacturer.  When  that  is  accomplished,  revenue  ceases  ; 
and  in  precisely  the  same  proportion  that  a  tariff  operates 
as  a  protection  to  the  home  manufacturer  does  it  operate 
to  reduce  the  revenues  of  the  government. 

"  Not  only  does  the  so-called  protection  system  offend 
in  the  particulars  which  I  have  named,  but  it  is  also  a 
direct  violation  of  the  liberty  of  the  citizen  to  sell  where 
he  pleases,  and  to  buy  where  he  can  buy  cheapest.  Every 
man  should  be  permitted  to  sell  his  labor  where  he  can  get 
the  highest  price  for  it.  The  question  is  not,  after  all,  how 
many  dollars  does  the  laboring  man  receive  for  a  day's 
work,  but  how  much  of  what  he  must  consume  will  his 
day's  labor  purchase?  If  a  day's  labor  at  $3  per  day  will 
purchase  for  the  laboring  man  his  hat,  or  his  boots,  or  the 
blanket  which  he  needs,  he  is  receiving  better  pay  than  when 
he  gets  $5  per  day;  but  his  boots,  or  his  hat,  or  his  blanket 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  271 

costs  him  $10.  The  laborer  should  be  permittee!  to  take 
his  labor  or  its  products  to  the  market,  where,  in  exchange 
for  those  commodities  which  he  needs,  he  can  get  the  most 
of  such  commodities.  But  to  compel  the  farmer  to  exchange 
one  day's  labor  for  one  yard  of  cloth  manufactured  in  New 
England,  when  he  might  exchange  the  same  amount  of 
labor  for  two  yards  of  cloth  manufactured  in  Old  England, 
is  merely  a  system  of  legalized  plunder  of  the  farmer,  in- 
stead of  protection  to  American  industry. 

"  I  apprehend  that,  should  the  government  levy  a  direct 
tax  upon  all  the  property  of  the  country,  to  be  paid  over 
directly  to  the  iron  manufacturers,  so  that  they  might  be 
enabled  to  hold  their  own  against  the  competition  of  the 
foreign  manufacturers,  but  few  would  be  found  who  would 
justify  such  an  exercise  of  the  power  of  taxation.  If  there 
is  any  difference  between  such  a  plan  and  a  tariff  for  pro- 
tection, the  difference  is  against  the  tariff.  When  reduced 
to  its  exact  practical  operations,  the  protection  of  Ameri- 
can industry,  so  called,  is  simply  the  forcible  taking  from 
the  consumer  of  a  portion  of  his  earnings,  and  handing  it 
over  to  the  manufacturer.  The  proposition  to  the  con- 
sumer is  simply  this:  We,  the  government,  will  take  from 
you  10  or  15  or  20  per  cent  of  your  earnings,  and  give  it  to 
the  manufacturer,  and  he  will  spend  it  so  much  more  judi- 
ciously than  you  would,  that  ultimately,  and  in  the  process 
of  time,  it  will  in  some  curious  and  circuitous  manner, 
which  we  haven't  the  time  to  explain  now,  rebound  more 
greatly  to  your  advantage  than  it  would  had  you  spent 
it  yourself  and  for  yourself. 

"  We  are  all  now  in  favor  of  free  speech,  free  thought, 
free  soil,  free  labor;  what  is  there  about  trade  that  it  should 
not  be  free?  If  I  am  permitted  to  attend  church  where  I 
please;  to  think  upon  all  political  and  religious  subjects  as 
I  please,  why  should  I  not  be  permitted  to  buy  and  sell 


272  POLITICAL   OKATOKY. 

where  I  please?  Why  should  I  be  compelled  to  make  my 
exchange  of  coin  for  woolen  and  cotton  goods  in  New  Eng- 
land, my  exchange  of  my  wheat  for  iron  goods  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, my  pork  and  beef  for  salt  at  Syracuse  or  Saginaw? 
Am  I,  thus  compulsorily  driven  to  a  particular  market,  a 
free  man?  So  far  as  my  corn  and  wheat  and  pork  and  beef 
are  concerned,  I  have  to  come  in  competition  with  the 
world.  The  prices  which  I  secure  for  them  are  fixed  by  the 
markets  of  the  world.  I  am  compelled  to  sell,  giving  to 
the  purchaser  all  the  benefits  of  the  largest  competition, 
but  am  compelled  to  purchase  in  a  restricted  market. 
This,  we  are  assured,  protects  American  industry. 

"The  evils  resulting  from  the  protective  system  being 
so  direct  and  immediate,  so  plain  and  so  easily  understood, 
we  are  naturally  led  to  inquire,  '  What  compensation  does 
the  system  furnish  for  the  many  evils  which  flow  from  it? 
It  will  hardly  do  to  answer  this  inquiry  by  saying  that  the 
system  fosters  and  encourages  American  industry,  for  if 
the  entire  agricultural  interests  are  compelled  to  pay  trib- 
ute to  the  manufacturing,  certainly  the  former  are  not 
thereby  fostered  and  encouraged  in  following  agricultural 
pursuits.  The  ship-builder  it  not  fostered  and  encouraged 
in  building  ships  so  long  as,  through  the  operation  of  a 
tariff,  he  is  compelled  to  pay  so  high  a  price  for  almost 
every  article  which  enters  into  the  construction  of  a  ship 
that  it  costs  him  nearly  twice  as  much  to  build  a  ship  here 
as  it  costs  the  Englishman  to  build  one  in  his  own  ports. 
So  long  as  that  difference  exists  in  the  cost  of  ship-building, 
those  who  desire  ships  will  have  them  built  where  they  can 
be  built  the  cheapest,  and  the  industry  of  our  home  ship- 
builder, so  far  from  being  fostered  and  encouraged,  is  de- 
stroyed, and  he  is  driven  from  that  employment. 

"  But  we  are  assured  that  by  the  protection  of  home  in- 
dustry we  furnish  a  home  market  for  our  own  products. 


POLITICAL  OUATOtt*.  273 

It  requires  some  argument,  and  pretty  close  attention,  to 
the  statement  of  the  argument,  to  clearly  perceive  how  the 
farmer,  in  being  compelled  by  a  protective  tariff  to  pay  for 
his  reapers  and  threshers,  his  hoes  and  his  spades,  his 
wagons  and  his  harness,  his  clothing  and  his  salt,  anywhere 
from  15  to  20  per  cent  more  than  he  otherwise  would  be 
compelled,  receives  an  adequate  compensation  from  the 
fact  that  the  persons  to  whom  these  prices  are  paid  reside 
at  Pittsburgh  and  Lowell,  instead  of  at  Sheffield  and  Man- 
chester. It  is  quite  true  that  the  man  who  employs  his  en- 
tire time  in  manufacturing  iron  will  not  be  able  to  till  the 
soil,  but  this  is  quite  as  true  of  the  artisan  in  England  as  in 
Pennsylvania.  In  order  to  enhance  the  price  of  grain,  the 
general  demand  for  it  must  be  increased.  Our  grain  mar- 
ket responds  as  readily  to  the  state  of  the  English  harvests 
as  to  the  condition  of  our  own.  If  to-day  one  half  the 
laborers  in  the  fields  in  England  should  be  withdrawn  from 
that  form  of  industry,  that  vacancy  not  being  supplied,  and 
at  once  transferred  to  the  mill  and  the  workshop,  the  effect 
would  as  readily  be  felt  here  as  should  the  same  transfer 
be  made  from  our  own  fields.  Unless  the  system  of  pro- 
tection decreases  the  number  of  grain  producers,  I  fail  to 
see  how  it  is  to  affect  the  prices  of  grain  advantageously. 
It  is  not,  I  believe,  claimed  that  protection  actually  in- 
creases the  population.  The  system  creates  no  additional 
mouths,  and  unless  it  be  demonstrated  that  the  worker  in 
an  iron  mill  or  in  a  cotton  factory  eats  more, —  is  from  the 
nature  of  his  pursuits  a  hungrier  man  than  other  kinds  of 
laborers, —  I  fail  to  see  how,  by  the  protective  system,  the 
grain  market  is  improved. 

"We  are  also  assured  that  the  protective  system  keeps 
gold  at  home ;  that,  inasmuch  as  it  is  not  expended  for 
foreign  manufactures,  it  is  retained  in  the  country,  and 
we  are  thereby  made  the  richer  for  such  retention.  Even 


274  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

if  that  result  were  certain  to  follow  from  the  protective 
system,  it  would  by  no  means  furnish  a  substantial  argu- 
ment in  its  favor.  If  my  gold  will  buy  me  more  of  what 
I  need  by  expending  it  abroad  than  at  home,  the  actual 
wealth  of  the  country  is  lessened  by  compelling  me  to  spend 
it  at  home.  If  I  receive  for  my  labor  five  dollars  per  day, 
in  gold,  and  with  that  gold  can  buy  one  blanket  in  New 
England  and  two  blankets  in  Old  England,  I  am  a  loser, 
and  the  country  is  a  loser,  in  compelling  me  to  buy  my 
blankets  in  New  England.  I  am  worth,  under  such  a 
system,  just  one  blanket  less  than  I  would  be  without  it. 
The  gold  which  I  receive  represents  my  day's  labor,  and 
the  more  of  what  I  need  to  consume  I  am  enabled  to  get 
with  my  day's  labor,  the  better  I  am  off. 

"Another  point  strenuously  urged  by  the  advocates  of 
protection  is  that  it  diversifies  American  industry.  I  do 
not  believe  that  industry  can  be  diversified  by  legislation. 
I  do  not  believe  that  the  natural  tendencies  of  mankind, 
particularly  in  this  country,  set  so  strongly  towards  the 
tilling  of  the  soil  and  rural  lives,  that  an  act  of  Congress 
is  necessary  to  check  them.  The  necessities  and  wants  of 
men  are  all  the  provocatives  needed  to  diversify  labor. 
This  has  been  shown  to  be  so  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world;  it  will  probably  continue  so  to  the  end.  Our  first 
parents  were,  in  their  first  and  happiest  condition,  en- 
gaged in  purely  rural  pursuits  and  pleasures.  After  their 
expulsion  from  Paradise,  Adam  was  compelled  to  manu- 
facture either  a  hoe  or  a  spade,  before  he  could  dig  the  soil. 
Eve  also  manufactured  an  apron.  Tubal  Cain  was  a  black- 
smith. Abel  was  a  wool  grower.  Noah  was  at  one  time  a 
ship-builder,  and  after  the  flood  manufactured  wines  from 
grapes  grown  in  his  own  vineyard,  and,  as  we  are  informed, 
was  on  one  occasion  at  least  a  very  liberal  consumer  of  his 
own  products.  "We  do  not  all  raise  wheat  and  corn, 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  275 

although  we  all  consume  bread.  But  the  farmer  needs 
something  besides  bread.  He  needs  clothing,  and  the 
manufacturer  supplies  it  to  him.  His  horses  must  be  shod — 
the  blacksmith  does  it  for  him.  His  grain  must  reach  a 
market — the  carrier  takes  it  to  the  market  for  him.  He 
must  have  a  house  to  shelter  himself — the  mechanic  builds 
it  for  him.  His  children  must  be  taught — the  school- 
master teaches  them  for  him.  He  must  have  books  and 
papers  to  read — the  printer  and  publisher  furnish  them. 
The  manufacturer  of  clothes,  the  blacksmith,  the  carrier, 
the  mechanic,  the  teacher,  the  printer,  and  the  publisher, 
by  the  various  articles  which  they  furnish  the  farmer, 
supply  themselves  with  bread.  The  very  structure  of  civ- 
ilized society  is  rested  upon  this  variety  of  wants  and 
necessities,  and  the  consequent  variety  and  diversity  of 
employments  by  which  they  may  be  supplied. 

"  But  I  insist  that  the  natural  result  of  the  protective 
policy  is  not  to  diversify  labor,  but  to  commit  it  to  some 
particular  channels.  For  if,  through  the  intervention  of 
the  government,  the*  manufacturers  of  iron  goods  and 
woolen  goods  receive  particular  benefits  and  advantages  at 
the  expense  of  other  forms  of  industry,  the  industry  which 
Is  pursued  without  these  adventitious  aids  will  certainly 
desire  to  change  its  form  and  adopt  the  kind  thus  specially 
favored.  When  the  farmer  and  the  printer,  the  ship- 
builder and  the  carpenter,  find  that  the  government  leaves 
them  to  take  care  of  themselves,  and  compels  them  to  pay 
tribute  to  the  iron  manufacturer  and  the  cotton  or  woolen 
manufacturer,  they  will  abandon  their  former  pursuits 
and  seek  the  more  favored  one,  just  as  certainly  as  the 
night  succeeds  the  day.  The  attempt  to  diversify  labor 
by  legislation  is  like  an  attempt  to  diversify  the  character 
of  our  garments  by  a  statute.  We  will  probably  wear  light 
goods  when  the  heats  of  summer  are  upon  us,  and  heavier 


276  POLITICAL   OKATORY. 

and  thicker  ones  when  the  frosts  of  winter  are  about  us. 
We  diversify  our  wearing  apparel  to  meet  the  diversities  of 
climate;  we  will  just  as  naturally  diversify  our  labor  to 
meet  the  diversities  of  our  wants,  necessities,  and  tastes. 

"  Another  favorite  argument  of  the  protectionists  is 
that  it  is  unjust  to  submit  our  industry  to  competition 
with  what  they  call  the  pauper  labor  of  Europe.  This  argu- 
ment, if  it  may  be  called  an  argument,  answers  itself.  The 
price  of  the  manufactured  article  naturally  depends  in  a 
great  measure  on  the  price  of  labor  employed  in  its  man- 
ufacture. The  price  of  that  labor  depends  necessarily 
upon  the  relation  between  the  supply  of  such  labor  and 
the  demand  for  it.  If,  by  a  protective  tariff,  the  produc- 
tion of  cotton  goods  is  largely  and  unnaturally  increased, 
the  demand  for  that  kind  of  labor  will  also  be  increased; 
the  supply  will  meet  that  demand;  industry  will  be  deviated 
from  other  channels,  and  the  very  fact  that  a  feverish  and 
unnatural  demand  for  that  kind  of  labor  is  created,  tends 
inevitably  to  the  lessening  of  the  wages  of  the  operative. 
An  artificial  stimulus  given  to  the  manufacturing  interests 
in  this  country  brings  to  our  shores  what  is  called  the 
pauper  labor  of  Europe.  With  that  labor  our  own  indus- 
try must  be  brought  into  competition,  and  there  is  no 
method  more  positively  certain  of  bringing  the  prices  of 
labor  down  to  m  e  factory  rates  than  by  making  the 
country  one  vast  factory.  The  jingling  phrase,  '  American 
prices  for  American  labor,'  means  nothing,  unless  it  be  a 
fact  that  American  prices  are  better  and  larger  than  any 
other  prices.  If  English  prices  for  labor  are  higher  than 
American  prices,  then  I  am  in  favor  of  English  prices  for 
American  labor.  The  fact  is  when  we  take  into  account 
the  difference  between  our  currency  and  gold,  and  the  dif- 
ference in  price  of  living  in  this  country  and  in  the  old 
world,  the  prices  paid  to  the  skilled  artisan  in  England,  in 


POLITICAL  OtlATOHY.  277 

Prance,  and  in  Belgium  are  greater  than  are  paid  in  this 
country. 

"Legislation  can  not  regulate  prices  atiy  more  than  it 
can  change  the  rotation  of  the  seasons.  A  policy  which 
looks  to  a  rapid  and  artificial  increase  in  the  number  of 
laborers  in  any  branch  of  industry  can  have  but  one  con- 
sequence, and  that  is  a  reduction  in  the  rewards  of  each 
laborer.  Unless  all  natural  laws  have  ceased  to  operate, 
such  must  be  the  result.  The  old  manufacturers  of  the 
Damascus  blade  needed  no  protection.  The  superior 
quality  of  the  steel,  and  the  superior  skill  of  the  artisans 
engaged  in  the  manufacture,  furnished  all  the  protection 
that  was  needed.  Demosthenes  needed  no  protection 
against  the  competition  of  foreign  orators;  nor  did  Pericles 
or  Phidias  seek  a  discriminating  tariff  to  aid  them  in  their 
appeals  to  Athenian  taste  and  culture  against  the  competi- 
tion of  the  foreign  sculptor  or  painter.  Socrates  and  Plato 
for  success  with  their  countrymen  needed  no  tariff  upon 
philosophy  to  give  them  precedence  over  all  competitors, 
but  the  vigor  of  their  understandings  and  the  marvelous 
skill  with  which  they  gave  expression  to  their  ideas  ade- 
quately protected  them  against  any  and  all  competition. 
Great  skill  and  great  genius  protect  themselves.  They 
carry  always  with  them  a  shield  which  renders  them  abso- 
lutely secure  against  all  attacks,  save  those  made  by  greater 
skill  and  greater  genius;  and  before  such  attacks  they 
ought  to  be  subdued;  they  will  be  overcome,  and  all  the 
legislative  art  and  legerdemain  on  earth  can  not  long  post- 
pone such  result. 

"  We  are  also  assured  that  the  country  is  new  and 
young,  and  that  we  must  have  a  protective  tariff  for  the 
benefit  of  our  infant  manufacturers.  When,  I  ask,  will 
the  country  be  old  ?  When  will  our  manufactures  pass  the 
adolescent  period,  and  reach  the  quality  of  .manhood? 
If  to-day  there  were  carved  out  of  the  British  Isles  another 


278  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

empire,  the  empire  thus  newly  created,  as  a  distinct 
national  existence,  would  be  new,  but  in  every  other  sense 
it  would  be  as  old  as  the  original  empire  from  which  it  was 
taken.  Nations  are  not  new  or  old,  dating  merely  from 
the  commencement  of  their  national  existence,  but  from 
the  experience  with  which  the  history  of  the  world  has 
supplied  them.  This  young  Republic  of  ours,  almost  the 
newest  born  among  the  nations,  is  vastly  older  than  the 
old  Assyrians,  who  nourished  hundreds  of  years,  and  then 
fell,  thousands  of  years  ago.  It  is  older  in  the  experiences 
of  the  world  than  the  Egyptians,  whose  unriddled  sphinxes 
lie  half  buried  in  the  desert  sands,  and  whose  mighty  pyra- 
mids, records  of  which  are  lost  in  the  early  morning  of 
this  world's  history,  in  the  midst  of  utter  barrenness,  rear 
their  colossal  forms  against  the  sky.  All  that  past  art,  or 
science,  or  skill,  or  thought,  or  study,  has  taught,  is  ours. 
Reckoning  the  age  of  a  people  by  its  possessions,  we  are 
the  oldest  people  in  the  world.  There  is  no  infancy  in 
our  national  life.  It  is  the  bone  and  gristle  of  manhood. 
That  our  territorial  extent  is  great,  and  as  yet  undeveloped, 
is  true;  but  a  protective  tariff  will  neither  lessen  its  terri- 
torial extent  nor  assist  in  the  rescue  from  the  native  wild- 
ness  of  the  prairie  or  the  forest,  the  portions  which  the 
industry  of  man  has  not  yet  touched.  In  the  sense  in 
which  it  is  said  that  our  country  is  new,  it  will  remain  so 
just  as  long  as  it  has  not  the  same  amount  of  population 
to  the  square  mile  as  England,  and  France,  and  Belgium. 
A  protective  tariff  will  not  hasten  that  increase  of  popula- 
tion; nor  would  the  immediate  doubling  of  the  laboring 
interests  materially  benefit  those  who  are  already  here. 

"  But  what  about  our  infant  manufactures  ?  If  I 
were  plundered  of  my  possessions,  it  would  be  but  a  sorry 
consolation  to  be  told  that  an  infant  had  done  it.  Cer- 
tainly I  shojald  not  approve  a  policy  which  looked  to  the 


POLITICAL     ORATORY.  279 

increase  of  the  strength  and  plundering  capacity  of  the 
infant.  I  should  be  apt  to  say,  '  He  may  be  an  infant  in 
years,  but  he  is  a  giant  in  strength.'  Hercules,  when  he 
strangled  the  serpents  and  vanquished  the  Nemean  lion, 
was  an  infant,  but  among  serpents  and  lions  an  exceed- 
ingly dangerous  and  uncomfortable  infant;  and  had  it  been 
left  to  the  vote  of  the  serpents  and  the  lions,  I  doubt  not 
there  would  have  been  an  unanimous  expression  of  opinion 
against  their  being  compelled  to  contribute  to  the  increase 
of  his  strengtli  on  the  ground  of  his  infancy.  In  all  those 
essentials  which  ordinarily  characterize  infancy,  have  our 
manufacturing  interests  any  of  the  marks  of  infancy  about 
them  ?  If  their  present  pecuniary  strength  and  power  is 
infancy,  God  deliver  us  from  their  youth  and  their  man- 
hood !  Abundantly  able  to  go  alone,  I  insist  that  they 
now  shall  go  alone,  and  that  neither  the  government  shall 
of  itself  help  them,  nor  compel  me  to  help  them. 

"  But  the  laborer  himself  is  not  assisted  by  a  protective 
tariff.  The  proprietor  derives  all  the  benefits  from  it,  and 
the  profits  all  go  to  him.  Not  only  that,  but  protection  is 
the  ultimate  ruin  of  our  manufactures.  It  stimulates  an 
unnatural  and  artificial  production;  it  withdraws  capital 
and  labor  from  pursuits  in  which  they  are  naturally 
employed,  and,  under  a  delusive  prospect  of  larger  profits, 
inveigles  them  into  the  protected  manufacture  or  pursuit. 
Thus  an  extortionate  tariff  upon  iron  will  greatly  stimulate 
its  production  until  the  market  is  glutted,  and  ruin  fol- 
lows. Cotton  mills  are  even  now  closed.  The  tariff  on 
wool  led  thousands  into  wool-growing  who  would  not 
otherwise  engaged  in  it,  and  the  wool-grower  now  knows 
that,  so  far  from  conferring  any  substantial  benefits  upon 
him,  the  protective  tariff  is  a  delusion  and  a  snare. 

"  It  ruins  the  inventive  genius  of  the  people,  by  render- 
ing its  exercise  unnecessary.  In  the  affairs  of  this  world 


280  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

skill  must  meet  skill.  Natural  obstacles  in  the  way  of 
competition  must  be  overcome  by  greater  ingenuity  in 
mechanical  appliances.  The  manufacturer  of  pig  iron  can 
slumber,  and  run  his  mills  upon  the  old  plans,  and  by  the 
old  methods  of  machinery.  The  bounties  which  the  gov- 
ernment compels  the  public  to  pay  him  render  it  unneces- 
sary for  him  to  do  more  than  to  suffer  things  to  run  as  they 
are.  When  necessity  drove  the  inventive  genius  of  the 
people  in  that  direction,  the  sewing  machine  was  one  of  its 
results,  and  with  those  machines  we  now  supply  the  world. 
Our  vast  fields  presented,  'for  the  reaping  of  our  grains, 
the  preparation  of  the  soil,  planting  of  the  seeds,  and  the 
harvesting  of  the  ripened  crops,  new  problems;  and, 
turned  by  necessity  in  those  directions,  the  genius  of  the 
people  brought  forth  the  patent  drill,  the  reaper,  the 
thresher,  the  cultivator,  and  the  harvester.  Without  a 
navy  when  the  rebellion  began,  and  with  three  thousand 
miles  of  sea  coast  to  blockade,  the  necessities  of  the  situa- 
tion turned  in  that  direction  the  inventive  genius  of  the 
people,  and  one  bright  morning  at  Hampton  Roads  the 
sudden  offspring  of  that  ingenuity,  the  Monitor,  revolu- 
tionized the  naval  architecture  of  the  world,  and  rendered 
the  old  wooden  walls  as  useless  and  as  worthless  as  mere 
fabrics  of  pasteboard. 

"  Let  us  not  distrust  ourselves.  The  shoemakers  of 
Lynn  need  no  protection.  The  wonderful  skill  of  their 
machinery  places  foreign  competition  out  of  the  question. 
Open  the  door  to  competition.  Let  it  be  known  that  in 
any  branch  of  industry  there  is  a  necessity  that  American 
ingenuity  should  exhibit  itself,  and  it  will  certainly  do  so. 
In  its  presence  all  natural  difficulties  and  obstacles  will  be 
overcome,  and  it  will  assuredly  triumph. 

"  Protection  destroys  our  carrying  trade,  and  thereby 
drives  our  vessels  from  the  seas.  I  have  already  shown 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  281 

that,  as  a  reguiar  pursuit,  ship-building  in  this  country 
has  substantially  ceased.  The  tariffs  upon  the  materials 
which  enter  into  the  construction  of  a  ship  are  so  enormous, 
and  the  cost  is  thereby  so  greatly  enhanced,  that  competi- 
tion with  foreign  ship-builders  is  simply  impossible.  But 
the  trouble  does  not  cease  here.  Before  the  tariff,  a  large 
and  profitable  trade  was  carried  on  with  South  American 
ports,  where  our  calico  and  sheetings,  and  other  products 
of  our  labor,  were  exchanged  for  their  wools.  This  trade 
gave  employment  to  the  ship-builder  and  ship-owner,  and 
to  the  sailor.  It  opened  a  market  for  our  own  products, 
and  gave  thereby  employment  to  our  own  labor.  Our  own 
wares  were  sold  at  profitable  prices.  We  were  supplied 
with  cheap  and  fine  wools.  Every  one  was  benefited. 
But  the  protective  tariff  laid  its  hand  upon  wool,  and  all 
these  interests  perished  as  if  they  had  been  blighted  with 
a  mildew.  On  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  the 
Almighty  has  seen  fit  to  confer  warmer  suns  and  more 
genial  heats  than  shine  upon  the  salt  marshes  of  Syracuse 
or  Saginaw.  Congress  has  sought  to  correct  this  order  of 
Providence,  and  to  protect  the  Onondaga  and  the  Saginaw 
salt,  manufactured  by  mechanrcal  heats  and  appliances, 
against  that  perfected  by  the  cheaper  agencies  of  solar 
heat.  We  bring  in  our  vessels  no  more  salt  from  the  shores 
and  the  islands  of  the  Mediterranean.  We  get  poorer  salt, 
and  at  a  higher  price  than  formerly;  but  be  assured,  Provi- 
dence will  win. 

"  Even  though  their  culture  be  protected  by  an  act  of 
Congress,  oranges  will  not  grow  so  luxuriantly  in  Vermont 
as  in  Portugal.  The  sun  still  shines  as  warm  in  Southern 
Europe,  and  as  coyly  and  as  coldly  in  New  York  and 
Michigan,  as  before  Congress  undertook  to  decree  that  it 
should  be  otherwise;  and  the  benefits  and  blessings  of  God's 
sunshine  we  must  have,  come  from  whatever  source  they 
may. 


282  POLITICAL     ORATORY. 

"  "We  have  an  enormous  tariff  on  coal.  As  well  might 
you  attempt  to  impose  a  tax  upon  one  of  the  elemental 
forces  of  nature  as  upon  coal.  It  is  the  power  which 
moves  all  our  machinery,  and  the  use  of  which  enters 
directly  or  indirectly  into  every  article  of  human  wants, 
necessities,  comforts  or  luxuries.  Yet  we  are  obliged  to 
pay  tribute  for  the  use  of  that  power  which  drives  our 
machinery  and  which  heats  our  houses.  As  well  might 
you  tax  the  sunshine.  The  tariff  on  iron  not  only  enhances 
the  price  of  every  article  into  which  it  enters,  and  which 
we  are  obliged  to  use,  but  it  swallows  up  the  hard  labor  of 
the  farmer  in  the  cost  of  transportation  of  his  products  to 
a  market.  The  cost  of  railroad  construction  is  thereby 
enhanced,  and  an  advance  in  rates  of  transportation  fol- 
lows as  a  necessity.  In  its  practical  operations,  our  pres- 
ent tariff  is  simply  a  nuisance.  Of  about  4,000  articles  sub- 
ject to  the  tariff,  twenty  furnish  half  the  revenue,  and  the 
balance  are  purely  mischievous. 

"A  gentleman  of  the  name  of  Spaulding prepares  glue 
and  sells  it  for  a  good  price  under  the  name  of  t  Spaulding's 
Prepared  Glue/  His  is  American  industry,  and  hence  is 
protected.  Last  year  the  government  received  by  way  of 
revenue  from  the  tariff  on  glue  the  magnificent  sum  of 
$17.  Our  hens  are  protected ;  and  in  18G8  the  govern- 
ment received  $6.90  from  duties  on  ostrich  eggs;  and  yet  I 
believe  that,  even  thus  protected,  the  native  hen  will  never 
succeed — so  far  at  least  as  the  size  of  the  egg  is  concerned — 
in  competition  with  the  ostrich.  Sauerkraut  is  protected, 
and  the  protection  yielded  a  revenue  to  the  government 
of  $6.  Apple  sauce  is  also  protected,  and  in  1808  yielded 
a  revenue  to  the  government  of  $300.  We  are  also  pro- 
tected against  Spanish  flies  and  Brazilian  bugs.  Our  native 
flies  and  bugs  are  in  their  infancy,  and  must  be  protected. 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  283 

"  Finally,  what  is  a  tariff  ?  It  is  a  tax.  It  is  nothing  less 
than,  and  nothing  but,  a  tax.  It  is  a  tax  which  we  do 
not  pay  to  the  government,  but  to  the  manufacturer  for  his 
private  enrichment ;  for  where  protection  begins  revenue 
ceases.  The  consumer  is  impoverished,  the  government  is 
not  aided.  Shall  this  system  be  continued  ?  The  question 
we  must  answer.  We  may  dodge  it  and  evade  it  for  a  time; 
but  the  millions  of  men  who  protected  the  nation  in  the 
hour  of  its  sore  peril,  and  with  their  lives,  demand  that  this 
question  be  answered.  I  am,  for  myself,  prepared  to 
answer  it.  My  answer  is:  Our  soil  is  free,  our  men  are 
free,  our  thought  is  free,  our  speech  is  free,  our  trade  shall 
be  free." 

Circumstances  altered  Mr.  Storrs'  economic  opinions. 
lie  was  engaged  by  the  iron  and  steel  interests  to  pre- 
sent their  case  before  the  House  Committee  of  Ways 
and  Means  in  1880,  in  opposition  to  a  proposed  reduc- 
tion of  the  tariff  on  steel  rails.  The  reduction  was  ad- 
vocated by  lion.  James  F.  AVilson  of  Iowa  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  agricultural  West,  and  the  eloquence  of 
Mr.  Storrs  was  put  in  requisition  to  oppose  it.  He  was 
successful,  and  not  only  convinced  the  committee,  but 
himself,  that  in  certain  cases  protection  was  a  proper 
thing.  The  ground  of  his  argument  for  the  iron  and 
steel  men  was  that  they  had  paid  $800,000,000  for  the 
use  of  the  Bessemer  patent  in  the  United  States,  and 
that  it  would  be  mere  robbery  to  permit  the  English 
manufacturers  of  Bessemer  steel  to  introduce  their 
goods  in  the  market  of  the  United  States  on  terms 
which  would  make  their  competition  hurtful  to  Ameri- 
can manufacturers.  His  argument  prevailed,  but  having 
once  turned  bis  attention  to  a  "  favored  industry,"  he 
opened  his  mind  to  the  whole  question  of  protection, 


284  POLITICAL   ORATOKY. 

and  we  have  now  to  place  before  the  reader  an  utter- 
ance radically  different  from  the  foregoing.  The 
economic  philosopher  loses  himself  in  the  advocate,  and 
builds  up  untenable  theories  to  help  him  out  to  extrava- 
gant conclusions.  It  must  be  remembered,  in  reading 
the  speech  we  have  now  to  introduce,  that  it  was 
spoken  to  men  in  the  employ  of  the  steel  ring,  and  is 
to  be  considered  as  the  utterance  of  an  advocate.  The 
speech  of  1870,  without  doubt,  conveyed  Mr.  Storrs'  real 
opinions : 

"  I  am  satisfied  that  there  is  no  necessity  to  make  any 
speech  on  the  subject  of  the  tariff  here  to-night  for  the 
purpose  of  convincing  anybody  who  is  present  of  the  neces- 
sity, the  propriety,  and  wisdom  of  the  protective  system. 
You  have  the  most  conclusive  proofs  of  the  wisdom  of  the 
tariff  policy  in  your  own  experience,  in  your  occupation, 
and  in  your  lives.  There  is  no  proof  in  this  world  quite 
so  satisfactory  and  demonstrative  as  that  which  a  man  gets 
from  his  actual  living  condition;  and  the  man  who  has  a 
full  stomach  and  a  comfortable  home,  is  well  housed,  and 
his  children  and  his  family  are  well  educated  and  well 
clad,  knows  it;  and  there  is  no  amount  of  collegiate 
theorizing  nor  fine  spun  theories  in  the  world  that  is  going 
to  change  that  condition  which  he  knows  he  may  be  en- 
joying. There  is  no  man  with  an  empty  stomach  that  is 
ever  going  to  have  it  filled  by  an  argument.  The  experi- 
ment has  been  tried  over  and  over  again  by  all  free-trade 
orators  in  America.  There  is  no  man  whose  children  and 
whose  family  are  badly  clothed  and  inadequately  fed  that 
is  going  to  have  them  kept  warm  by  Professor  Sumner's 
theories.  -  . 

"  I  do  not  speak  for  any  class  here  to-night.  There 
are  50,000,000  of  people  in  this  country,*  pretty  nearly 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  285 

that— 50,000,000  of  citizens.  Out  of  that  50,000,000  of 
citizens  there  are  probably  about  45,000,000  who  may 
be  called  laborers.  These  laborers  constitute  the  great 
body  of  American  citizenship,  and  the  capitalists  and  the 
college  professors  and  the  preachers  cut  a  very  small  figure 
numerically  when  they  are  compared  with  the  whole  body 
of  citizenship.  I  am  talking  in  favor  to-night,  therefore, 
of  the  great  body  of  American  citizenship,  which  is  affected 
either  for  good  or  for  ill  by  the  tariff  system. 

"  And  when  I  speak  in  favor  of  the  laboring  classes  of 
this  country,  I  talk  in  favor  of  the  whole  country.  The 
very  useful  and  the  very  excellent  class  to  which  I  belong, 
that  of  lawyers  [laughter],  might  all  die  to-night;  it  would 
be  a  great  loss  to  their  families  and  to  their  friends,  but 
the  country  would  go  right  on  to-morrow  as  usual.  The 
postmasters  might  all  die  to-night  and  the  members  of 
Congress  [laughter],  and  the  preachers  and  the  editors, 
and  we  would  gather  ourselves  together  and  go  right  on 
quite  comfortably  day  after  to-morrow. 

"  But  the  laboring  interests  of  this  country  are  its 
spinal  column.  You  can  take  the  natural  man,  and  cut 
off  his  fingers  and  his  hands,  or  his  arms  or  his  legs,  and 
he  will  struggle  along ;  but  a  very  slight  wound  in  that 
spinal  column  destroys  absolutely  the  individual. 

Now,  when  I  speak  to  you  laboring  men  I  do  not  speak 
to  you  men  who  work  in  mills,  for  I  take  an  exceedingly 
broad  view  of  this  tariff  question.  I  hold  that  the  man  on 
the  farm  is  quite  as  much  benefited  by  the  enforcement  of 
the  protective  system  as  the  man  in  the  mill.  Now  there  is 
no  mistake  about  it,  for  if  you  should  turn  loose  on  all  the 
farms  and  into  the  fields  as  cultivators  and  tillers  of  the 
soil  all  the  men  who  are  engaged  to-day  in  workshops,  fac- 
tories, foundries,  furnaces  and  mills,  there  would  be  such 
an  impairment  of  the  general  prosperity  of  the  agricultural 


280  POLITICAL   ORATOKY. 

interests  of  the  country  as  I  can  not  command  any  language 
adequately  to  describe.  For  the  success  of  any  sort  of 
labor  requires  two  things  :  first,  an  intelligent  and  well" 
paid  laborer  who  produces,  and  next  a  provident  and  a 
prosperous  purchaser  and  consumer  ;  and  there  can  not  be 
any  such  thing  as  prosperity  among  our  agricultural  classes 
unless  it  is  accompanied  by  prosperity  among  manufactur- 
ing classes,  that  they  may  be  able  to  buy  what  comes  out 
of  the  ground,  and  so  that  the  farmer  may  be  able  to  buy 
what  comes  out  of  the  mill. 

"  God  in  His  infinite  wisdom  is,  I  think,  wiser  than  the 
free-trader.  About  the  first  thing  that  God  did  after  He 
made  Adam  and  Eve  was  to  diversify  industry.  He  didn't 
set  them  all  to  tilling  the  Garden  of  Eden,  but  they  went 
into  the  iron  business,  as  I  understand  it,  at  a  very  early 
day. 

"  I  have  said  we  have  50,000,000  people  here.  I  remem- 
ber some  few  month  since,  in  discussing  this  complicated 
tariff  question,  a  gentleman  asked  me  what  I  considered  to 
be  the  best  evidence  of  general  prosperity  —  real  prosper- 
ity, not  that  which  was  apparent  and  fictitious,  but  the  real 
genuine  article.  Now  it  is  a  favorite  trick  with  free-trade 
orators  and  scholars  to  say  of  all  prosperity  which  exists 
under  the  protective  system,  that  it  is  delusive,  deceptive, 
and  fictitious.  The  result  of  their  logic  is  that  there  is 
nothing  genuine  but  want;  that  there  is  nothing  really 
prosperous  but  pauperism,  and  that  there  is  nothing  really 
solid  except  the  poor-house.  I  am  inclined  to  the  opinion 
that  a  full  stomach  is  just  as  much  a  reality  as  an  empty 
one.  I  have  tried  both.  I  am  fully  convinced  that  when 
the  sunshine  of  hope  and  contentment  shines  over  all  your 
hearthstones,  and  you  go  home  and  find  your  table  well 
supplied  and  your  little  children  well  fed  and  well  clad, 
that  that  is  just  exactly  as  genuine  as  to  see  them  driven 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  287 

by  necessity  and  want,  beggared  and  tattered,  into  the 
streets.  I  answered  this  man,  that,  given  a  sound  currency 
(which  we  have),  the  surest  earthly  evidence  that  any  one 
could  furnish  of  real  prosperity  was  well-paid  labor.  I 
have  read  a  great  deal  of  political  economy,  and  you  may 
read  it  till  you  become,  as  I  have  become,  dizzy  in  its  con- 
templation; but  there  is  in  all  this  world  no  indication  of 
prosperity  so  sure,  so  certain,  as  that. 

"  Now,  laying  the  tariff  at  one  side,  why  am  I  in  favor 
of  the  protective  system  as  I  am?  I  will  tell  you  very 
briefly.  This  country  never  was  prosperous  except  when 
labor  was  adequately  rewarded  —  and  in  this  country  labor 
was  never  adequately  rewarded  except  when  we  had  a  pro- 
tective tariff. 

"  The  other  day  a  gentleman  said  to  me,  '  Why,  sir, 
they  tried  free  trade  in  England,  and  have  for  years.  Isn't 
it  prosperous?  If  England  prospers  under  free  trade  why 
should  not  we  prosper  under  the  same  doctrine?'  I  said: 
'  That  depends  —  that  depends.  What  you  call  England 
I  don't  call  the  United  States  of  America.' 

"England,  or  the  British  Empire,  has  30,000,000  of 
people  or  thereabout,  and  of  those  30,000,000  there  are  not 
5,000,000  who  can  be  called  financially  prosperous.  When 
writers  speak  of  the  prosperity  of  England,  they  mean  sim- 
ply the  prosperity  of  the  laud-owner,  the  capitalist,  the 
banker,  and  the  commercial  interests  of  that  empire. 

"  England,  I  am  told,  is  prosperous,  but  there  is  one 
pauper  out  of  every  thirty-five  of  its  subjects;  in  this  coun- 
try there  is  one  pauper  out  of  every  278.  England,  I  am 
told,  is  prosperous.  You  can't  go  into  a  manufacturing 
town  in  England  anywhere  and  take  from  their  mills  any- 
where, or  their  factories  anywhere,  an  audience  of  work- 
ingmen  such  as  I  see  here  to-night,  who  have  their  own 
Jiomes,  educate  their  children,  clothe  them  comfortably, 


288  POLITICAL   ORATORY. 

are  well  housed,  themselves  well  clad  and  as  well  dressed 
as  I  see  this  audience  to-night  —  you  can't-  find  it  in  all 
England.  You  may  go  all  over  that  empire  and  such  a 
spectacle  can  not  be  presented.  Now,  why  is  that?  It 
is  because  their  labor,  for  purposes  which  we  want  to 
make  the  citizen  in  this  country,  is  inadequately  re- 
warded. The  citizen  here  is  one  thing;  the.  subject  in 
Great  Britain  is  quite  another  thing.  The  citizen  here  is 
a  component  part  of  the  government,  and  the  prosperity  of 
the  government  and  its  strength  depend  upon  the  happi- 
ness and  contentment  and  prosperity  of  the  citizen.  The 
object  of  this  government  is  to  make  a  happy  and  con- 
tented individual  [Hear  !  hear  !]  ;  and  the  object  of  their 
government  is  to  make  good  pig-iron,  no  matter  what 
happens  to  the  man.  In  that  government  the  product  is 
elevated  above  the  worker;  in  this  country  the  worker  is 
superior  to  anything  that  he  makes.  We  would  rather  pay 
more  for  our  iron  and  have  the  man  who  made  it  happy 
and  more  prosperous;  they  want  their  iron  cheap  so  they 
can  sell  it  in  competition  with  the  world,  no  matter  what 
happens  to  the  man  who  makes  it. 

"England  is  not  free  trade,  and  never  was,  and  never 
will  be.  There  never  on  the  face  of  the  earth  was  a  country 
so  thoroughly  and  efficiently  protective  of  its  manufactur- 
ing interests  as  Great  Britain  to-day.  The  beginning  of 
their  alleged  free-trade  system  was  with  the  abolition  and 
repeal  of  the  corn  laws.  Why  were  they  repealed  ?  It 
was  to  reduce  the  price  of  labor  and  manufacture  so  that 
they  could  carry  on  this  competition  with  the  world,  and 
their  whole  struggle  has  been  to  reduce  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion, including  the  reduction  of  the  wages  of  the  laborer, 
so  that  they  may  compete  with  the  world  in  the  articles 
which  they  manufacture.  They  protect  their  manufact- 
uring interest  by  lowering  the  laborer  —  taxing  his  reward; 


POLITICAL   ORATORY.  289 

we  protect  our  manufacturing  interest  by  increasing  his 
wages  and  keeping  our  competition  within  ourselves. 

"They  don't  plow  the  sea  with  their  ships  on  anything 
like  an  even  competition  There  is  no  disguise  in  the  way 
in  which  they  protect  their  merchant  marine.  They  don't 
do  it  through  the  indirect  and  guarded  agency  of  the 
tariff,  but  they  do  it  by  the  payment  to  their  merchant 
marine  of  enormous  sums  of  money  by  way  of  subsidy 
directly,  so  that  there  is  no  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth 
that  can  manage  to  keep  up  a  competition  with  them. 

"Now,  then,  the  question  comes  right  home  to  us. 
'What  is  our  duty  as  American  citizens?'  I  am  not  a 
humanitarian  in  its  very  largest  sense.  It  is  enough  for 
my  humanity  to  be  circumscribed  within  the  boundaries  of 
this  continent.  I  am  in  favor  of  all  politics  which  will 
contribute  to  the  interests  of  the  citizens  of  this  country, 
and  it  is  to  the  American  citizens'  interest  that  I  am,  in 
the  first  instance,  compelled  to  look.  I  know,  for  the  his- 
tory of  this  country  has  taught  us,  that  there  has  never 
been  a  time  when  we  have  taken  away  the  protection  from 
our  own  industries  that  our  labor  has  not  been  universally 
paralyzed  and  a  reign  of  terror  and  financial  bankruptcy 
extended  over  the  whole  country,  embracing  not  merely 
our  manufacturing  interests  within  its  baleful  effect,  but 
bringing  down  the  commercial,  mercantile,  financial  and 
agricultural  interests  with  it  as  well,  in  one  common  and 
universal  ruin.  I  know  that  ruin  has  followed,  from  the 
organization  of  the  government  down  to  this  moment,  every 
attempt  to  put  into  practical  operation  the  theories  of  free 
trade;  and  I  know  full  well — the  history  of  this  country 
teaches  it  to  me,  and  there  is  no  gainsaying  and  denying 
it  —  that  prosperity  of  the  largest  and  most  satisfactory 
character  has  always  attended  adequate,  honest,  and  judi- 
cious protection  of  American  industries. 


290  POLITICAL  ORATORY. 

' '  What  the  industries  of  this  country  require  is  steadi- 
ness. We  want  not  only  a  tariff  to-day,  we  want  to  know 
what  it  is  going  to  be  to-morrow  and  the  next  day  and  the 
next  year.  The  time  has  come  in  our  politics  when  we 
know  no  longer  any  color  lines,  and  when  it  is  for  our  in- 
terests to  look  after  our  interest  and  the  interest  of  no 
other  country.  I  am  willing  to  take  care  of  England  when 
I  am  through  taking  care  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
and  the  time  is  coming  when  our  political  action  must  be 
guided  and  determined  by  what  we  know  to  be  not  only 
our  individual  but  the  national  interest.  The  time  is 
coming  when  we  should  no  longer  be  deceived  by  political 
trade-marks  and  labels,  but  when  every  man  who  looks  to, 
and  regards,  and  is  a  well-wisher  for  the  prosperity  of,  the 
great  laboring  interest  in  this  country  will  give  his  sup- 
port and  his  ballot  to  no  man  that  would  in  the  slightest 
degree  imperil  or  put  in  jeopardy  these  great  interests. 
Now  the  man  who  is  in  favor  of  free  trade  is  opposed  to 
your  interest;  and  I  don't  care  by  what  political  name  he  is 
designated,  the  man  who  is  in  favor  of  constant  tinkering 
with  our  tariff,  rendering  large  investments  insecure  and 
uncertain,  rendering  your  tenure  of  place  insecure  and  un- 
certain,—  such  a  man  is  not  either  your  personal  nor  politi- 
cal friend,  and  it  behooves  you  when  you  understand  the 
situation  to  act  upon  it.  You  are  masters  of  the  situation, 
and  can  emphasize  your  views  in  such  a  manner  that  your 
selected  rulers  will  be  compelled  to  observe  them. 

"  Gentlemen,  I  said  when  I  started  that  there  was  no 
necessity  of  our  arguing  about  the  tariff  to  you.  A  few 
illustrations  of  its  workings  —  and  working  on  a  limited 
scale — perhaps  furnish  the  best  sort  of  argument  that  we 
can  possibly  command. 

"  I  am  opposed  to  putting  the  American  laborer  in 
field  or  farm  or  factory  or  furnace  or  mill  or  shop  on  an 


POLITICAL  ORATORY.  291 

even  competition  with  any  man  who  doesn't  live  as  well  as 
he  does.  Now  that  is  a  very  fair  way  to  state  it.  I  am 
opposed  to  having  the  American  laborer,  who  clothes  his 
children  and  eats  meat,  compelled  to  work  in  competition 
with  a  man  who  throws  his  children  upon  the  town  and 
never  eats  meat.  [Applause.]  The  competition  is  not  a 
fair  one,  and  such  competition  means  this:  Under  its  in- 
fluence both  laborers  will  by  and  by  leave  their  children  in 
rags,  and  neither  will  eat  meat.  Suppose  you  had  two 
foundries  here  side  by  side.  In  one  foundry  there  was  not 
a  man  in  it  who  furnished  a  single  article  of  clothing  to 
his  family,  paid  a  dollar  for  their  education,  ever  had  a  fire 
in  his  home,  and  ever  had  meat  upon  his  table.  And 
suppose  in  the  other,  honest  and  intelligent  workingmen 
thought  it  was  their  duty  to  clothe  and  educate  their 
children  and  keep  themselves  well.  Now,  gentlemen,  do 
you  suppose  that  for  any  length  and  period  of  time  the 
well-fed,  public-spirited  laborers  could  sustain  a  competi- 
tion with  the  others?  Why,  they  could  work  for  25  cents 
a  day  and  make  money  where  you  was  losing  it  on  $1.50. 
They  would  have  no  expenses. 

"  Take  it  where  it  was  illustrated  in  San  Francisco. 
Now  the  proposition  of  the  free-trader  is  simply  this:  It  is 
to  throw  down  the  barriers  and  place  every  laborer  in 
America  in  active  competition  with  every  laborer  every- 
where else  all  over  the  world,  barring  the  mere  question  of 
transportation.  You  are  brought  into  direct  competition 
with  the  English,  with  the  French,  with  the  German  and 
with  the  Chinese  laborer.  Now,  take  it  in  San  Francisco. 
This  whole  problem  of  free  trade  has  been  wonderfully 
worked  out  there,  for  free  trade  means  nothing  under 
heaven  but  a  competition  of  the  American  laborer  with  the 
underpaid  laborer  of  the  old  world.  From  1870  to  1880 
every  city  in  the  United  States  had  gained  in  population 


POLITICAL   ORATORY. 


except  San  Francisco.  From  1875  to  1880  every  city  in 
the  United  States  had  gained  in  its  business  interests 
except  San  Francisco.  During  those  five  years  of  time 
every  city  in  the  United  States  had  increased  its  taxable 
wealth  except  San  Francisco.  Every  city  was  prosperous 
in  1880  except  San  Francisco.  Every  city  in  the  United 
States  from  1875  to  1880  had  gained  in  the  number  of  its 
laboring  men  and  in  the  amount  of  their  accumulation 
except  San  Francisco.  What  was  the  trouble?  The  free- 
trader tells  us  that  the  elysium  of  free  trade  is  a  cheap 
product.  Isn't  that  it?  He  says  to  the  farmer,  *  Let  us 
abolish  all  this  infernal  tariff,  and  everything  will  be  cheap.' 
As  if  the  beauty  of  heaven  was  that  everything  was  cheap 
there!  Your  clothes  will  all  be  cheap,  and  all  work  will  be 
done  for  you  cheap.  Your  furniture  will  all  be  cheap  — 
everything  you  need  for  supplying  all  human  wants  and 
necessities  will  be  cheap.  Well,  what  if  it  is?  Suppose  it 
is  cheap,  that  isn't  heaven.  In  this  free-trade  elysium  that 
ruled  in  San  Francisco,  laundry  was  cheaper  than  anywhere 
in  the  world.  There  were  about  30,000  Chinamen  there, 
and  with  that  competition,  why  the  white  washer  of  clothes 
stood  no  sort  of  chance.  Cigars  were  cheaper  there  than 
anywhere  else  in  America.  Why?  Because  the  China- 
man had  gone  into  making  cigars,  and  the  white  laborer 
who  clothed  himself  and  fed  himself  could  hold  no  sort  of 
competition  with  him.  In  the  manufacture  of  tinware 
and  wooden-ware  the  white  labor  was  driven  out  of  the 
markets  of  San  Francisco  and  all  the  state,  and  those 
goods  were  never  so  cheap,  and  San  Francisco  was 
never  so  utterly  wretched.  What  was  the  trouble?  You 
had  merely  transferred  from  China  just  a  mere  speck  of 
population,  a  mere  drop,  put  it  into  a  locality  and  brought 
the  intelligent  laborer  into  competition  with  it,  and  down 
the  intelligent  American  laborer  went.  Why?  Why  the 


POLITICAL  ORATORY. 


article  with  which  he  was  then  compelled  to  compete 
had  had  its  stomach  adjusted  to  famine  by  3,000  years  of 
experience.  What  could  the  American  laborer  with  his 
notions  of  comfortable  and  decent  living  do  in  competition 
with  the  man  who  dined  off  rice  and  supped  off  rats? 

"  Now,  then,  if —  and  I  want  you  to  answer  this  question 
for  yourselves  —  if  placing  that  little  trifle  of  competition 
down  by  the  side  of  the  American  laborer  produces  that 
result;  if  bringing  but  one-hundred-thousandth  part  of 
China  over  here  to  compete  with  us  destroys  the  prosperity 
of  a  great  city,  what  will  it  do  when  the  barriers  are  all 
thrown  down  and  you  compete  with  300,000,000  of  China- 
men? Whatwill.it  do  when  the  barriers  are  all  thrown 
down — and  the  repeal  of  the  protective  system  is  the  over- 
throw of  these  barriers,  every  one  of  them  —  when  you  not 
only  compete  with  this  labor,  but  with  the  degraded  labor 
all  the  world?  This  is  the  proposition  of  which  the  free- 
trader loses  sight.  He  loses  sight  of  the  purpose  of  this 
government.  He  never  seems  to  conceive  why  it  was 
organized.  He  doesn't  seem  to  be  able  to  understand  or 
comprehend  the  great  idea  that  lies  at  its  foundations. 
The  object  of  this  government,  the  mission  which  it  is  to 
perform,  is  the  ennobling  of  the  citizens  and  the  elevation 
and  dignifying  of  humanity.  It  is  too  big  an  idea  — 
altogether  too  big  an  idea  —  for  the  free-trader  to  grasp. 
But  that  man  never  was  dignified,  and  that  individual  never 
was  ennobled,  that  labor  never  was  prosperous,  and  that 
citizenship  never  was  great,  that  had  to  depend,  in  the  race 
for  success  in  this  world,  upon  competition  with  cold  fire- 
sides, desolate  homes,  hungry  children,  the  poor-house  in 
the  near  distance,  illiteracy  and  want. 

"  I  expect  to  see  this  country  great.  This  country  will  be 
great,  not  because  its  prairies  are  vast  nor  its  streams  long 
and  running,  bearing  the  soil  of  thousands  of  miles  on  their 


294  POLITICAL   OllATORY. 

bosoms  to  the  ocean;  not  because  the  mountains  are  high — 
that  is  not  what  makes  this  country  great;  but  this 
country  is  the  greatest  missionary  of  all  the  world,  from  all 
the  ages  and  to  all  the  ages,  because  it  is  the  first  country 
upon  which  the  sun,  in  all  its  revolving  course,  ever  shone, 
that  puts  the  individual  above  the  government,  and  that 
says  that  all  that  government  was  made  for  was  simply  to 
furnish  the  machinery  by  which  the  man  might  develop 
the  largest  manhood  that  was  in  him.  When  labor  pros- 
pers this  is  done.  I  am  in  favor  of  protecting  our  indus- 
tries, not  because  I  am  a  mechanic,  or  ever  was,  but  because 
down  in  the  bottom  of  my  heart,  with  a  love  as  deep  as  I 
have  felt  for  wife  or  parent,  I  love  this  country,  I  believe 
in  its  future,  .and  I  know  that  it  is  the  hope  of  all  the  ages, 
to  be  answered  only  by  the  prosperity  of  the  average  citi- 
zen. 


'j. 


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